The Innocence Mission’s Karen Peris has announced a new solo album, A Song Is Way Above the Lawn, which she recorded with her husband (and Innocence Mission bandmate) Don Peris, with some contributions from their son and daughter. It’s the first album we’re getting from members of the Lancaster folk crew since last year’s wonderful See You Tomorrow, which we named our Album Of The Week. Here’s Karen Peris on the album:

I like that it’s possible to re-travel some of the wide open expanse of childhood imagination and wonder. The thing is, I don’t really feel that far away from those places even now, and I’m sure that’s a universal thought. The moments I’m telling about in the songs, and the wonder and the curiosity – I still feel so much of it, just as anyone does. I didn’t want to be an adult saying to a child, This is how you feel. It’s more like saying, just as a person talking with another person, Isn’t this how we all feel, and isn’t that a mystery of life, too, that we are all so connected? So, most of the songs are written in the first person.

The first we’re hearing from the album is “I Would Sing Along,” a lovely song inspired by a NPR interview Peris heard about The Elephant Listening Project, which for decades has been trying to decipher the sounds that African elephants use to communicate with each other. “In the low light, in the lowest notes/ I hear him singing sweetly,” Peris sings. “An elephant sings someone to sleep/ And I would sing with him.” Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Superhero”
02 “To The Library”
03 “I Would Sing Along”
04 “For A Giraffe”
05 “This Is A Song In Wintertime”
06 “Map For The Orange Daylight”
07 “Sister Birds”
08 “George In The Car”
09 “A Song Is Way Above The Lawn”
10 “Flowers”

A Song Is Way Above The Lawn is out 10/8 via Bella Union. Pre-order it here.