Virginia-based Karen Jonas is readying the release of her seventh album, The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch, for August 9th, 2024. Her latest single, “Gold in the Sand,” is out now. The song’s embattled love story has a Las Vegas setting.

It’s a record that is, “in part, fueled by optimism; however, the shadow side of The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch is the waste, excess and addiction that are the product of mid-century America.” 

Jonas says:

The ’50s birthed the concept that we can and should buy things we don’t really need. Post-war factories, the baby boom, suburbia: we started manufacturing an idea of joy that we still sell today.

With every new invention and fashion trend, something else lands in the trash. It keeps me up at night. Our kids are inheriting a shopping habit and a huge pile of garbage.

Jonas plotted The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch before she began writing for her 2023 release The Restless. Jonas returned to the Kitsch after watching Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 Elvis movie on the plane returning from SXSW. Jonas then wrote eight songs over as many days that would become The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch.

Recorded live in the studio, The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch features long-time collaborator, guitarist Tim Bray, piano/organ by Washington, DC musician Benji Porecki, fiddle by NYC pro Bobby Hawk, and pedal steel by Ahren Buchheister. Bassist Seth Morrissey and drummer Ben Tufts also joined the gang.