Allison Russell Recruits Brandi Carlile to Reimagine “You’re Not Alone”

Ahead of a run of August and September U.S. shows together, Allison Russell and Brandi Carlile have shared a moving new collaboration. The duo’s “You’re Not Alone” reimagines the Russell-penned and -produced track of the same name from Songs of Our Native Daughters, the 2019 debut album from Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Leyla McCalla as roots-music supergroup Our Native Daughters, and is Russell’s first release since her Grammy-nominated 2021 debut album Outside Child.

Russell and Carlile’s rendition turns the rustic Songs of Our Native Daughters closer into a sweeping, almost cinematic experience, wringing added poignance from the pair’s vocal interplay—a moving reinforcement of its central assurance. Where the original employed a gradual build, this new version moves with more urgency, working through its emotional beats like there isn’t a second to waste. A lush string arrangement by SistaStrings (Monique and Chauntee Ross) and Larissa Maestro elevates things further, rising and falling with Russell and Carlile’s voices, like a sonic representation of the shared strength the song shines a light on.

Russell says of the song in an eloquent statement:

We are not alone.
We are not what we have lost.
We are more than the sum of our scars.

We are the dust of the stars, the bones of the Earth, the breath of the void, the expanse of our imaginations, the arc of art, the love in our hearts.

We lift each other up.

We are the “Beloved Community” every time we choose to be. Our Circle is battered and bloody but still, whole. None above, none below—our one human family—equal under the listening sky.

I believe what Alice Walker wrote:
“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Every child deserves to be loved and protected. Our families with LGBTQIA+ parents are just as precious.
No one should be forced into the sacred role of parenthood against their will.
Human Rights are worth fighting for.
We’ve come a long way but we must go farther still.

I am grateful to my chosen family, Brandi, for singing “You’re Not Alone” with me, for inspiring me everyday, for elevating everything, for leading the way.
We will not be turned back.
Love & Revolution

All Bandcamp proceeds from the track will benefit The Looking Out Foundation, the Everytown Support Fund and the Fight For Reproductive Rights Campaign.

Russell will join Carlile on a series of tour dates starting tonight (Aug. 18) at Columbia, Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, with shows in Bethel, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to follow. In September, the pair will play a two-night stand at Morrison, Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and in October, Russell will make her Austin City Limits debut. Both Russell and Carlile recently shared the Newport Folk Festival stage with folk legend Joni Mitchell during her historic surprise set.

See the “You’re Not Alone” visualizer and Russell’s 2021 Paste session below, and keep scrolling for her upcoming tour dates.

Allison Russell Tour Dates:

August
18 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion #
19 – Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods #
20 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Mann #
24 – London, UK @ Omeara ^
27 – Bottesford, UK @ The Long Road Festival
29 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Paradiso

September
03 – Los Angeles, CA @ KCRW Summer Nights
09-10 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks #
13 – Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion *
14 – Nashville, TN @ Americana Music Festival
15 – New York City, NY @ Radio City Music Hall *
30 – Memphis, TN @ Mempho Music Festival

(# – w/ Brandi Carlile)
(* – w/ Nathaniel Rateliff)
(^ – w/ Lady Nade)