Allison Russell is in demand. Broadway wants her: she just wrapped her second run as Persephone in the Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown.” Sarah McLachlan wants her: Russell is opening for her again this summer, including on Saturday night at Forest Hills Stadium. Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile want her: she’s a frequent collaborator with both, including at Mitchell’s “Joni Jams” and with Carlile’s supergroup The Highwomen. The publishing industry wants her: she’s working on her memoirs after signing a book deal.
It is a staggering body of work. But it’s her role as a solo artist that is in the spotlight now, as the Montreal-born singer, multi-instrumentalist, actress, author and activist today releases her new solo album, “In The Hour of Chaos.”
Laden with guests, the record celebrates the spirit of collaboration — in the studio, on the stage and in life.
“I really think about it like the mixtape for a musical that’s yet to be written,” Russell says during a video chat. “I have populated it with people and voices and artists who inspire me, who I love, who I learn from every time I’m in a room with them.”
A pivotal song called “Really Real”, featuring Norah Jones, sits in the fifth slot.
“To me, that song is like the heart of it,” she says. “Like who are your stand-up people that show up? It’s recognizing and celebrating those people. It might be one person in your life. It’s deeper than economic currency. That currency of showing up for each other and being there for each other is so much about what we’re digging in on, of what is the antidote to the kind of endless doom spiral that we can find ourselves trapped in, especially if we spend too much time in the online negativity bias algorithms.”
The deep connection Russell experienced with Jones, Joy Oladoku, Brittney Spencer, Sara Watkins and other prominent guests on “In The Hour of Chaos” infuses the material with communion and camaraderie. And some lesser-known contributors hold an equally special place: The Explore! Pop Choir, which features Russell’s daughter, sing on the tune “Cold April.”
“That might have been my most joyful day in the studio ever,” Russell recalls, “with that yellow school bus pulling up to the legendary Sound Emporium in Nashville and 30-plus middle schoolers spilling out to come sing ‘Cold April with us. It was just so utterly joyful. And they give me hope. My daughter’s 12 now, and the kids really, truly give me hope and also give me courage to keep trying to do what I’m called to do, to break cycles of harm, and for me, I don’t have a lot. I have songs and words and stories, and that’s kind of it, and that’s what I can use.”
Russell, who opened for McLachlan on her “Fumbling Towards Ecstacy” 30th anniversary tour in 2024, has reprised the role in a tour that kicked off on July 1. Russell also covered two of her fellow Canadian’s songs — “Angel” and “Mary” — on an EP, “Rainbows,” released this March.
Russell met McLachlan a few years ago through Joni Mitchell’s circle of collaborators and friends. Russell performed with them at Newport Folk.
“I play clarinet and sing backups in the Joni Jam band. Joni had such a blast when we did Newport in ’22 that she wanted to do another concert, and Brandi asked her, where would you like to do it? And she wanted to go back to The Gorge,” says Russell. “She had been there on a tour with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, and she wanted to go back and headline, and she went back and she sold that out in 10 minutes flat. Brandi ended up adding two more days to the concert because it was sold out so quickly.
“So it turned into like a Joni festival weekend, you know? And we got there a couple of days early to set up the stage, because with Joni Jam, we make the stage kind of feel like her living room. And there’s Joni in her one golden sort of throne armchair and Brandi in the other. Brandi had put this green velvet loveseat just behind. She and Joni and I got there for rehearsal, and she said, ‘OK, you’re going to sit back there with Annie and Sarah.’ I thought, OK, great. I figured nurses, aides of Joni’s, care workers or friends, because it’s not just musicians on stage, And I’m putting together my clarinet and I look over and it’s Sarah McLachlan and Annie Lennox walking over and then sitting with me on this little green loveseat.”
Russell became fast friends and collaborators with bothe of them. Lennox went on to sing on her song “Superlover” in 2025.
The multi-hyphenate artist, who has been nominated for eight Grammys, holds another woman close to her heart: Persephone, the queen of the mythological underground in “Hadestown.”
“She rides along with me now forever,” she says. “I got to do my my debut and that was about five months, all told, between rehearsals and performances. And then I had the honor of being invited back to reprise the role, which I just completed my second run in March of this year. And I have been so deeply changed and informed by that experience, and I think that’s going to come to bear in many different ways. But certainly I feel so much freer in my movement and in my body on stage and to be able to integrate movement into storytelling. It just feels more natural now since I’ve played that role. And she’s also just with me as just kind of my unhinged inner goddess that I can bring out when I need it, you know?”
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