Singer-songwriter Jess Williamson’s new album, A Mile South of Heaven, released on Friday, Oct. 9. In the weeks leading up to the album’s release, Williamson visited The Current to record a session in the Forum at Minnesota Public Radio.

Recorded in front of a live audience, Williamson performed solo acoustic versions of four songs off the new record. She also sat down for an interview with The Current’s Mac Wilson to talk about the album, about splitting time between Texas and Los Angeles, and working with producer Shooter Jennings — and Jennings’ interesting connection to Prince.

Interview Transcript

Mac Wilson: Hey there, I'm Mac Wilson from The Current, from Minnesota Public Radio in the UBS Forum, welcoming Jess Williamson. Hello, Jess.

Jess Williamson: Hello, thank you.

It's great to have you in. So you've got a new record, A Mile South of Heaven, with the idea being that maybe you come up a little bit short of what you're aiming for, and the optimistic slant is that you're still pretty close to heaven. So is that sort of a dichotomy that you wrestled with when you were recording and writing the record?

Yeah, I think it's like something that, it's been a big lesson for me over the last couple of years because I think like with any pursuit in life, you know, we have big goals, and especially for me, like, growing up and knowing I wanted to be an artist and be a singer and be a songwriter, and, like, leaving Texas, moving to L.A., and just having big dreams is a beautiful thing. But also, like, the goalposts are always moving, and so I think I had this kind of realization when I was making the album of, like, "I'm never gonna get there." I'm never gonna get to this impossible destination because every step forward, the destination changes, kind of, because there's always some new thing that presents itself of, like, OK, well, now that's just the baseline, so you have to keep going. It's like more and more and more. And so I really, I thought about kind of this image in my mind of, like, you're driving down a highway and you have the signs that say, like, how far to the next town, and then you get to the sign that says one mile, but then you keep driving and you realize all the signs just always say "one mile," because you're never gonna get there. And so I think maybe for me, I had enough of those, like, experiences of, like, the sign continuing to say "one mile," where I realized, like, I need to kind of appreciate where I'm at. And even making the album was such a good experience, that was one of those moments where I was like, "This is enough." Like, "I just I get to make this record, like that's a dream come true in itself. "So I think, like, for me, ultimately it is positive, because it's about appreciating and having gratitude for what you have instead of always wanting more.

“Tracking the Tropics”

“Goodbye to All That”

So one of the songs that we've been enjoying from the record, from the highlights, "Goodbye to All That," that you're playing here, in part alludes to leaving California and returning to Texas. So now I want to ask about Texas: So do you live full time in Marfa now?

No. So the story of "Goodbye to All That," which is funny, is so there's a Joan Didion essay called “Goodbye to All That,” and she wrote it when she was leaving New York City where she was living. And I read that essay years ago. Before I even lived in L.A., and I always loved it, and I love her. And so I was in L.A., and it was like my eighth year of living in L.A., and I started to feel like maybe it's time to like move back home for good. And because I love that Joan Didion essay, I thought, like, I'm gonna write my “Goodbye to All That,” but it's gonna be a song, and it'll be about L.A. And so I wrote the song, but then actually writing the song and the song itself, especially, like, the lyrics in the third verse, where the music kind of drops out and it talks about "goodbye to the poets, the dreamers, and their songs," I started crying writing it, and I realized how much I really wasn't ready to let it go, and how I felt like still this pull to Los Angeles. There's something there for me that I really appreciate. And actually, at that time, I didn't know where I would make the record or with who, and so the story there is like the song itself made me decide not to leave yet, and so I've been splitting time. So I'm about like half the time in Marfa and half the time in L.A. And, like, the irony is, if I had up and moved then when I wrote that song, I don't know if I would have made the record with Shooter.

How does one meet Shooter Jennings in the first place?

Yeah, that was amazing. So it was cool. I had written all the songs, and I had demos, and I shared them with a friend. He was like, "What if you made your record with Shooter Jennings?" And I was like, "Well, yeah. I mean, I would love to, you know." And so, thankfully, like, the music got passed along to him, and he liked the songs. And I think he's somebody that, although he works with a lot of really big artists, I think he's such an artist himself that it's just about the songs for him. And if he connects to the material, and so we met up. I went to his studio in L.A. which is at Sunset Sound at Studio Three, which is famously the Prince Room — Minnesota people appreciate that — because he lived or he worked there, but, like, apparently the rumor is he kept a bed there and would actually just stay in the studio from, like, I think — you can fact-check me — but I think it was, like, '83 to '87, and made Purple Rain there, Parade, and that was like his room. And now Shooter Jennings has a long-term lease on that room. So the first time I met Shooter, I went to the studio, and it was just such a good feeling. He gave me a tour, and then we just hung out for like an hour and talked about music and talked about the songs, and it just felt, like, I went in nervous, thinking it would be intimidating, and I was just immediately at ease and got such a good feeling from him and the space. It just, like, totally clicked.

I don't think I need to fact-check you because I think your years are correct. That was eventually the period when he was working on Sign o' the Times, and then there was an earthquake that struck, and it scared him so much that he wrote "Housequake," and that he moved out of L.A. after that fact. So that's where "Housequake" came from. He literally lived through a little earthquake. Did you have any earthquakes when you were recording?

No, I wish.

“Hum of the City”

Hey, if you enjoyed this performance, remember to like and subscribe, or visit thecurrent.org. So then we'll edit that in at the end.

Cool.

Video Segments

00:00:00 A Mile South of Heaven
00:03:18 Interview with host Mac Wilson, part 1
00:05:42 Tracking the Tropics
00:09:32 Goodbye to All That
00:12:56 Interview with host Mac Wilson, part 2
00:16:35 Hum of the City

All songs come from Jess Williamson’s 2026 album, A Mile South of Heaven, available on New West Records.

Musician

Jess Williamson – vocals and guitar

Credits

Guests – Jess Williamson
Host – Mac Wilson
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video – Jake Rudegeair
Audio – Josh Sauvageau
Camera Operators – Evan Clark, Isai Trujillo, Christian Ankrum
Photography – Tony Nelson
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producers – Reed Fischer, Jake Rudegeair, Luke Taylor

External Link

Jess Williamson – official site