Smell of Cut Grass

‘I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ALWAYS,’ the new record from Alexandra Scott, celebrates life, loss, death & love.
“Between Mardi Gras Day 2009 & two days after Thanksgiving 2012, 9 people who were dear to me died,” Scott says. “And I just kept going until all of a sudden I couldn’t. I couldn’t make music, I couldn’t listen to music, I could barely get out of bed. I didn’t really want to be here anymore & that scared me. So I booked some studio time on my credit card just to make myself do something, because I had all these songs.”
Alexandra crowdfunded the album, after spending the money she’d set aside for recording on her dog’s emergency surgery & cancer treatment. “We ended up making $9000, $1500 more than I’d asked for, & that was amazing, but what I hadn’t expected was the feeling of love & support coming in every day from people who wanted to help. It humbles me. It changed everything.”
She made the record in two parts, recording twelve songs in the early part of 2013, then taking a break to have two knee surgeries. “I finally gave in & got my knee replaced,” she laughs, speaking about the injury that kept her off the road for 8 years. “And during that time I wrote a few more songs, & I came back to Rick [Nelson, co-producer] & said ‘I want to add a few more.’” He said, ‘How many?’ & I said, ‘Oh, six...’ but without those songs it would’ve been a kinda sad album!”
The record features Scott’s longtime collaborator Sam Craft & her bandmate Alexis Marceaux, with guest appearances from Jack Craft, Natalie Mae Palms & Tom McDermott. “Tom emailed me one day & said, ‘Would you like to write a song with me?’ And I was like, ‘Oh hell yes...but did you mean to send this to Alex McMurray by any chance?’” At 17 songs, it’s almost a double record. “Sam said, ‘Release these songs while they’re fresh!’ – cause I write a lot.”
As for the title, Scott says, “The record’s dedicated to a lot of people, but most especially to my 9 friends who are gone. I didn’t get to say goodbye to most of them, but in a conversation with one of them, when we were saying goodbye, they said, ‘I love you so much always.’ And I realized that’s all I would have wanted to say to any of them, or to anyone I love. That’s all I’m saying when I’m singing. When I was a teenager I read an interview with Nanci Griffith & she said, ‘Every song should be a love song.’ I believe that.”