Daughter Of Swords (Alexandra Sauser-Monnig of Mountain Man) tapped Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy to produce her new single, “Prairie Winter Wasteland.” The Nonesuch release was recorded at Tweedy’s famed The Loft facility in Chicago.
Alexandra wrote “Prairie Winter Wasteland” about her hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota. Sauser-Monnig is backed by Jeff Tweedy “on a variety of instruments” as well as drummer Spencer Tweedy and bassist Nick Macri. The single marks Daughter of Swords’ first new music since the 2019 release of her Nonesuch debut, Dawnbreaker.
“[The song] is a reflection on the way our emotional experiences of place are shaped in powerful and mystical ways by the people we’ve know there,” noted Sauser-Monnig. “The way a certain quality of sunlight, or the call of a particular bird can conjure such specific associations, and can break your heart or lift you up. In the midst of sweltering North Carolina summer, I took a mental journey through the stark, abstract beauty of Minnesotan winter, and wrote this song that feels very much about the ways my grandmother who passed away several years ago is still present for me in the frozen blue sky and the dark bare branches of oaks and the snow blowing across frozen lakes of the upper Midwest.”
Stream “Prairie Winter Wasteland” below:
