MUSIC SOUNDBITE FROM “PLANET I”: “Storm is coming in, water in the gutter.”
Floods devastated areas of the Midwest in 2019. That summer, musician Ella Williams, also known as Squirrel Flower, was on tour.
“I remember driving on a highway through Missouri, and there was such immense flooding that the flat farmland just looked like a lake,” she says.
The image stuck with her. And as the effects of climate change worsen, she says she’s not alone feeling overwhelmed by the power of water.
In her new album, “Planet I,” Williams channels this anxiety.
She creates lyrical images of floods and storms to explore broader themes of fear and helplessness. And she wrestles with how to face problems in life that feel out of her individual control.
MUSIC SOUNDBITE FROM “PLANET I”: “And I’m not scared of the water. The rain is my parent, and I am the daughter.”
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media