Today H.C. McEntire released “Time, on Fire,” the first single from new album Eno Axis, which Merge Records announced will be released August 21.
On Lionheart, McEntire’s 2018 punk-country debut under her own name, her bread and butter was the queer South. During years spent touring with Mount Moriah and as Angel Olsen’s backing singer, McEntire reckoned with that theme from a distance, as she recorded songs and kept her Bible Belt past close, like a dashboard prism.
Since making Lionheart, McEntire has settled down at a century-old cabin along the Eno. A new calm is evident on the new single, in which movement is measured not in miles, but in days and dusks, river currents and seasons. It’s a twangy devotional with rich, sophisticated production and an animated tempo, as McEntire sings her way through a day: “Early rise, start the fire, till the rows, pass the tithes.”
The reference points sound like they come from the pages of a Farmers Almanac, but they’re not precious. McEntire has always had the gift of genuine delivery. It’s an auspicious first taste of an album about learning how to live in solitude, in love, and on your own terms.
Watch the video and listen to the song below.
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