"Singing a blend of elegant torch songs, ancestral ballads (in French and English), gentle country shuffles, and Al-Green inspired R&B, Russell embarks on a fresh musical beginning by dealing directly with her traumatic upbringing...Despite its heavy inspirations, Outside Child is anything but despairing or academic. Many of its songs mask their dark, difficult tales in deceptively sweet nursery-rhyme melodies." - Rolling Stone, Artist You Need To Know
Poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist – Allison Russell unpacks her youth in searing detail on her tour de force debut Outside Child. She sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places, the people and realisations that helped her survive and claim her freedom. “It’s an album of strength and affirmation, not victimisation,” said The New York Times in their profile on Russell, and has named Outside Child the #2 Best Album of 2021. Outside Child has received three Grammy award nominations in the Best Americana Album category, Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song. In addition to her three Grammy nominations, Russell has been awarded Album of the Year at the 2022 Americana Music Association Awards, four Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Polaris Music Prize and two Juno Awards. Russell is the first-ever Black artist to win a Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in Juno history.