Scout Durwood’s new album Woman Love has just been released via Blue Élan Records, marking her third collaboration with the Kirk Pasich Project. It is a collection built around songs that have stayed with her in her life. The single “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” is out now.
A ten-song collection of covers, Woman Love moves across genres and generations, bringing together songs by and for women alongside some surprising choices, ranging from artists like Melissa Etheridge, Jill Sobule, to Led Zeppelin and Tom Waits. For Durwood, “the songs are connected less by genre than by what they represent.”
Durwood explains:
I wanted to take songs that may not have been originally linked by genre and unite them with a cohesive narrative of power and strength. Part of our selection process when choosing tracks was, ‘is this something that sparks resilience? Would I march to it in a revolution?’
That idea runs through Woman Love, which Durwood describes as a “celebration of joy as political defiance.” The first song chosen was the Burton Cummings original, “Woman Love,” suggested by Kirk
Pasich. Pasich thought this song would set the tone for the rest of the album. The remaining songs
were selected because of the role they have played in Durwood’s life and in the way she approaches performance, storytelling and character.
The album follows Durwood’s 2022 EP One Woman Army and, as Durwood says, is “something of a sequel.” It also continues a relationship with Blue Élan that began in 2017 with Take One Thing Off, a hybrid comedy and music album that later became a 22-episode digital series. Her subsequent double EPs Comedy Electronica Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 became the foundation for her feature-length narrative visual album Youtopia, which Durwood wrote and directed.
Recorded in Los Angeles over five days, the album was produced by Zachary Ross and Kirk Pasich. The recording process was intentionally immediate. The band came into the sessions without knowing what songs they would be playing.
Durwood says:
We wanted to showcase a genuine process of discovery, rather than pre-meditated arrangements. There were so many times in the studio where we’d listen back to a track and someone in the band would be like, ‘dang, we did that.’ We moved so fast, there wasn’t a ton of time to process or plan, which can be a really beautiful way to tackle the creative process given the proper circumstances.
Joining Durwood on Woman Love is a studio band featuring Jordan West (Grace Potter, Cam) on drums, bassist Kurtis Keber (Grace Potter, Aly & AJ), Ty Bailie (Katy Perry) on organ and acoustic/electric piano, and Philip Glenn (The Show Ponies, Psychic Temple) on fiddle, violin, mandolin and accordion. Backing vocals come from Maiya Sykes (Leona Lewis, Rita Ora) and Nick Jackson.
