Saxophonist and composer Charles Lloyd and singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams have just announced that they’ll be releasing a new collaborative album, Vanished Gardens, later this year. Today they share its lead single “We’ve Come Too Far To Turn Around.” A horn opening transitions into Williams’ strong, almost Janis Joplin-like vocals. The song is an exciting hybrid of jazz, blues, and country rock.

Lloyd and Williams are backed by the Marvels, which includes Bill Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar and dobro, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Eric Harland on drums. Vanished Gardens was produced by Lloyd, Dorothy Darr, and Don Was.

Lloyd speaks about his partnership with Williams:

A friend had turned me on to Lucinda when Car Wheels On A Gravel Road came out. Lu has worked a lot with Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz, so a couple of years ago she came to one of my Marvels concerts at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara. It was our first meeting and I sensed a deep Southern crossroads connection. Not long after that meeting she invited me to guest at her UCLA concert and then I invited her to guest at one of my concerts about a year later… It was clear we had something we wanted to explore together.

I’ve worked with a lot of poets. especially during my Big Sur days; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski, Gary Snyder, Diane diPrima, Schyleen Qualls, Michael McClure, Bob Kaufman, James Dalessandro… putting words and music together. Lu is a poet. An authentic, American voice. Her sound is like an emotional barometer. A weather vane. Sometimes it swirls around in the tempest of a storm and sometimes it is sweet and pure as a Southern breeze carrying the intoxicating perfume of magnolia to you. As a poet, her imagery knocks me out. She is a reporter of the human condition, of life on planet Earth.

Listen to “We’ve Come Too Far To Turn Around” below.

Vanished Gardens is out 6/29 via Blue Note Records. Pre-order it here.