Julien Baker, Torres Preview Country Album ‘Send a Prayer My Way’ With ‘Sylvia’
Julien Baker and Torres have been bit by the country bug. On April 18, the pair will release Send a Prayer My Way, their debut collaborative album full of country twang and storytelling. The first glimpse into the record, the queer hoedown-accompanied “Sugar in the Tank,” arrived earlier this month. Now, Baker and Torres are previewing its more sentimental side with “Sylvia.”
The single is named after Torres’ dog, which found a forever home with her despite initially being placed as a foster. “The morning I went to pick up my dog Sylvia from an upstate shelter, I was at home making my coffee and I turned on WFMU and Dolly Parton’s ‘Cracker Jack’ was on,” the musician shared in a statement. “I burst into tears — it felt like the universe was telling me she was going to be mine.”
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Torres and Baker decided to make a country album together nearly a decade ago, after playing a show together in 2016. It was kismet, then, that “Cracker Jack” had such an intense emotional impact on Torres that day. It made her want to bottle that feeling. “I remember thinking that I’d love to write a song like that, a song that people could feel in their chest within five seconds of turning on the radio,” she explained, “because anyone who has ever had the honor of sharing a home with a beloved pet knows that a pet is family — they’re the best friends you could ever have.”
Send a Prayer My Way will span 12 songs, including the two singles and new tracks “The Only Marble I’ve Got Left,” “Bottom of the Bottle,” “Off the Wagon,” “Goodbye Baby,” and more.
In a lengthy love letter to the album, Valentine novelist Elizabeth Wetmore wrote: “These are also songs about radical empathy and second chances, and third chances, and while there’s plenty of struggle and regret in here, there’s also humor and defiance … Send a Prayer My Way reminds me of Lucinda Williams’s Happy Woman Blues (1980), or Loretta Lynn singing about The Pill in 1975. And just like those badass women, Baker and TORRES aren’t asking for anybody’s tolerance, or forgiveness, and they sure as shit aren’t asking for permission.”
Send A Prayer My Way Track List
1. “Dirt”
2. “The Only Marble I’ve Got Left”
3. “Sugar in the Tank”
4. “Bottom of a Bottle”
5. “Downhill Both Ways”
6. “No Desert Flower”
7. “Tape Runs Out”
8. “Off the Wagon”
9. “Tuesday”
10. “Showdown”
11. “Sylvia”
12. “Goodbye Baby”
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