Kassi Valazza has announced her new album From Newman Street today alongside the release of lead single “Weight of the Wheel.” Due out May 2 via Fluff & Gravy Records (Margo Cilker, Anna Tivel) and Loose Music (Andrew Combs, Courtney Marie Andrews), the upcoming 10-track set is delivered through a strikingly honest lens as Valazza ponders her willingness to accept change, finding positivity where she can. Newman Street refers to the location of a friend’s house in Portland where Valazza found shelter and a safe space to navigate new transitions in her life in 2023. Here, she wrote half of the songs on the new record and planned her move to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she wrote the other half. Valazza then returned to her former hometown to record with Matt Thomson at Echo Echo Studios. The result is as much a fond farewell as it is a fervent step forward.
On “Weight of the Wheel,” a weepy slide guitar underscores Valazza’s listless lament: All things look the same / From the pillow on my bed / I’m stressed out I’m far away / There’s dizzy dancing in my head. The song sounds like urgency, grief, surrender, and embrace—all at once. It’s feeling like some kind of fight to outgrow / The way I fear slowing down before I’m old. By 2022, that dizzy demise of cyclical living had set Valazza still—in a basement apartment there in Portland. “You’re going to be a different person after every album,” she says. “And you have to keep moving forward.”
Sights set on Nashville, Valazza landed in New Orleans. “It wasn’t the plan. I spent three months there between tours, and it just kind of happened.” The bright newness of The Big Easy illuminated fresh inspirations and unexpected love. But it also cast a stark light on Valazza’s sense of self; in a new place, you can see more clearly what you want to be, as well as what you haven’t been. “I discovered the less likeable parts of myself in that time,” Valazza says. Album standout “Your Heart’s a Tin Box” encapsulates precisely this, with a cynical-yet-sunny likeness to Joni Mitchell and lyrical acuity: I moved down to New Orleans / Thinking love would reappear / But people tell you everything / but what you wanna hear / You relied on fixated company / Now you’re drowning in your ego’s gluttony. The patterns of her Portland life had stalled Valazza. It wasn’t the city’s fault so much as the natural consequence of complacency, the stagnance that comes with too much of the same. Valazza knew she was due for a personal evolution, and when faced with those innate, bristling pangs of change, could soothe herself with that certainty.
The track sequence on From Newman Street is audibly intentional—from a deep lull and dull itch, to a barbed clash with cognitive dissonance, to humble submission, and an ultimate, open-armed acceptance of new life. Poetically enough, half the songs on the upcoming album were written in Portland, the other half in New Orleans. Valazza returned to her former hometown to record with Matt Thomson at Echo Echo Studios, and titled the release From Newman Street in tribute to an apartment she lived in deeply and left with heavy heart. The album is as much a fond farewell as it is a fervent step forward.
Valazza made the official move to New Orleans in February of 2024. “Coming from placid, wintry Portland straight into Mardi Gras—I would not recommend it.” She recalls the time with humor, grace, and sensitivity for her past self, qualities that shine through the album. “I’ve always been a believer that music is only good if it’s really raw, really honest—probably coming from a place of hurt,” Valazza admits. “But I’m trying to embrace chaos these days, and bring a little more light into my life.”
Kassi Valazza On Tour:
Feb 6 – Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room*
Mar 29 – Canberra, AUS @ Smith’s Alternative^
Mar 30 – Katoomba, AUS @ The Baroque Room^
Apr 1 – Marrickville, AUS @ Factory Theatre^
Apr 4 – Hindmarsh, AUS @ The Gov^
Apr 5 – Maylands, AUS @ Lyric’s Underground^
Apr 6 – Fremantle, AUS @ Freo.Social^
Apr 8 – Northcote, AUS @ Northcote Social Club^
Apr 9 – Footscray, AUS @ Kindred Bandroom^
Apr 10 – St Kilda, AUS @ George Lane^
Apr 12 – Meeniyan, AUS @ Meeniyan Town Hall^
Apr 13 – Hobart, AUS @ Altar Bar^
Apr 16 – Eltham, AUS @ The Eltham Hotel^
Apr 17 – Fortitude Valley, AUS @ Crowbar Brisbane^
Jun 20 – Mount Solon, VA @ Red Wing Roots Music Festival
*Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears
^John Craigie
