Lindsay Ell confronts her trauma on vulnerable album
Ell’s ‘heart theory’ concept album is broken down into the seven stages of grief, starting with shock, denial, anger and depression
Country singer Lindsay Ell lived alone with guilt and shame for years, but it took seeing herself in the story of another young girl to realise that she didn’t have to be defined by her trauma.
While listening to teenagers talk about their experiences with abuse at a youth centre where Ell helped launch a music programme, the Canadian-born singer and guitarist heard a 12-year-old girl explain how her parents had sold her into trafficking.
“All I want to do is reach out and tell her it’s going to be OK because when I was 13 years old, I would have done anything for someone to hold my hand and tell me that it was going to be OK,” said Ell, now 31.
Ell realised she also had a story to share about her journey through grief and trauma, and she eventually wrote enough to fill a full album. It’s called “heart theory” and it will be released on Friday.
Ell, originally from Calgary, Alberta, said in an interview with People magazine earlier last month that she was abused as a child.
“Shame and grief are such heavy feelings and we cannot deal with them by ignoring them,” said Ell. “And I got really good at ignoring those feelings, so much so that it felt like my new normal.”
But the meeting at the youth centre years ago made her realise she had an opportunity to reach more people like herself, who had felt broken and alone.
So she called one of Nashville’s most talented tunesmiths — Brandy Clark — the six-time
Grammy nominee who has writen hits for Kacey Musgraves (“Follow Your Arrow”) and Miranda Lambert (“Mama’s Broken Heart”), and toured alongside Ell. They had never writen together until the day Ell asked if Clark would help her write the song “make you,” which directly addressed her sexual assault.
“I felt like my biggest job was to just let her know that it was OK to say her truth,” said Clark. “I was really just trying to help her tell her story in her words, not put too many of my own words in it. And I was really honoured that she would be that vulnerable with me and also that she would be that vulnerable with the world.”
Onstage, Ell comes across as confident and exuberant. She is one of the best lead guitarists in contemporary country music ater being schooled in blues and rock guitar from an early age and easily holds her own onstage alongside Keith Urban and Brad Paisley. She is nominated for two Academy of Country Music Awards at its rescheduled awards show to be held on Sept. 16, including new female artist of the year and musical event of the year for her duet with Brantley Gilbert, “What Happens in a Small Town,” which became a No. 1 hit at country radio and Ell’s first song to crack the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart.