After releasing three albums over the past decade with The Suffers, Kam Franklin is going solo with the release of her debut album Land of the Neon Sun this Friday. Co-produced with Margo Price and featuring guest spots from Kevin Morby and blues guitarist Jackie Venson, the collection sees Franklin coloring outside of the lines established by her Houston neo-soul collective across 12 tracks that tend to take a more personal approach to songwriting.
Ahead of the album’s release this week, Franklin is sharing a “Neighborhoods” performance she filmed for us in her mother’s backyard in northwest Houston where she played through the album singles “A Heathen’s Hymn” and “I Got a Lover”—two songs that reflect the rays of hope and love gleaming through the record. “As a young woman, we moved around a lot, but I spent most of my formative years in this neighborhood,” she shares. “I have a deep love for the people and community of Acres Homes, Inwood Forest, and every block from Alabonson to Tidwell and DeSoto. Filming at my mom’s house felt like a return to my childhood, when I’d find myself practicing for hours at time. I spent a lot of my free time as a kid staring up and looking at those trees sway back and forth, so it was only right that those same trees serve as my stage for this performance.”
Check out the performance below, and pre-order Land of the Neon Sun here.
