Knuckling down
Oklahoma singersongwriter Ali Harter releases new album ahead of virtual WoodyFest set
After seven long years of navigating births, deaths, divorces and other life changes, Ali Harter released this summer her new album “Near the Knuckle” — in the middle of a global pandemic.
“There's positives and negatives. ... We can't go play a CD release show. I was planning on doing a Midwest or regional tour and playing a bunch of shows around town to kind of promote it. ... I can't do the CD release show for the Kickstarter. I have a bunch of people that I was going to do private concerts for because they donated at a certain level, I can't do that. I don't know when we're going to be able to,” she said.
“I would be lying if I said it wasn't bittersweet and disappointing in a lot of ways. ... But there's a part of me that is able to fulfill that promise to people who believed in me. I feel like I can breathe again.”
The Oklahoma City artist and musician will have the
chance to support her longawaited album with a set at the virtual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, which will be streaming Tuesday-July 19 on AppleTV, Roku, YouTube, Facebook Live and more.
Affectionately known as WoodyFest, the event typically takes place in the late, great folk icon's hometown of Okemah around his July 14 birthday, but the nonprofit Woody Guthrie Coalition, which organizes the festival, announced in April that the festivities were shifting online in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Along with Harter, this year's celebration of the folk singer's 108th birthday will feature performances from Arlo Guthrie and other members of the Guthrie Family, Jason Mraz, Graham Nash, Mary Gauthier, Glen Hansard, Branjae, BJ Barham, Ellis Paul, Jabee Williams and more.
Life changes
In 2012, Harter launched a Kickstarter campaign for “Near the Knuckle,” with every intention of following through the following year. The day after she reached her crowdfunding goal, she said she started recording with Wes Sharon at his 115 Recording Studios in Norman.
But life got in the way for the mother of two, especially with the death of her father, whom she called her No. 1 fan, in 2017. She was burned out on her music career and needed to figure out a healthy way to play in bars before she could finish the album. “I felt like I was letting people down time and time again when people would ask me about it. ... It's been a weight on my shoulders for years and years and years, and it's not that I didn't want to put it out or couldn't or it wasn't finished, it was just there were other things that required my attention for a really long time,” Harter said in a phone interview.
During the time frame, the Oklahoma native also found herself in a toxic workplace and decided to start her own business. She has spent the last three years building up Pigs Fly Shop, an artistic services company that specializes in tooled leatherwork, graphic design, hand-crafted furniture and more. Along with appearing on the lineup of musicians, Harter devised the poster and other materials for this year's WoodyFest.
“I gained confidence from being able to do that and getting myself and my family in a comfortable place, that was the thing that I think made it OK for me to be like, `OK, I'm going to devote some time and money to this project again and fulfill that promise,'” she said.
“I believed in the record. I still do. It's a (expletive) wonderful record. The artwork (by Jackie Jones) is gorgeous. I still believe in the messages in the songs. the musicians did a great job. It's a time capsule, and I just had to get to that place where I could focus on it.”
Coronavirus disruption
When she got to the place last year where she could knuckle down on “Near the Knuckle,” Harter said she asked Sharon to send her mixes and masters of the songs and was initially shocked by how well they had held up. Several of Harter's home-state musician pals contributed to “Near the Knuckle,” including John Fullbright, Parker Millsap, Kierston White, Kaitlin Butts, John Moreland and John Calvin Abney.
“They're timeless performances ... and Wes Sharon is just incredibly talented and is able to wrangle a bunch of cats like that in the studio and put all that together,” she said.
“That was always the goal to get this record out and start playing again. I remembered why I loved doing it in the first place, and I was having a blast playing with my friends again ... and then the universe was just like, `No.'”
Although the pandemic has derailed her plans, Harter said she is grateful her business allows her to work from home and care for her two daughters, and she just celebrated the first anniversary of her radio show “The Mean Hustle Broad Cast,” which airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on KOSU The Spy. In April, she debuted a surprise digital collection of unreleased songs called “Bribing the Dogs.”
“I have recently said quite a bit that `Near the Knuckle' was going to be probably my last release. I do love playing shows and I want to eventually play and support it. I haven't written anything in probably four years, and I don't feel the need to write anymore right now. ... Because I felt like maybe it was going to be my last release, the last record of my music, I knew that I had all these recordings of stuff that had never been released, stuff that people had never heard. I really liked the idea of releasing something that was like where I came from and then releasing something that was like, `This is where I'm at now. This is the last thing that I want people to hear,'” Harter said.
“So, there's still ways to work and really cool things that are happening. I just can't emphasize (enough) the weirdness of everything right now. But you've got to kind of find bright spots.”