LISTEN: Joe Iconis & Family Share New Song 'Tightrope Walker / Mountain Climber / Me' Performed by Molly Hager

Composer, songwriter, and playwright Joe Iconis has shared the new single "Tightrope Walker / Mountain Climber / Me," featuring actress Molly Hager.

It's the fifth and final single from Iconis' sprawling new 44-track album, simply titled Album, which features over 70 members of Iconis' vast family of collaborators including Aaron Tveit, Andrew Ranells, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Krysta Rodriguez, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kerry Butler, Danny Burstein, Annie Golden, George Salazar, Will Roland, and many more. Album will be released on June 17, 2022 via Ghostlight Records, a division of Warner Music Group

Iconis and company also have upcoming Album celebration shows in Los Angeles and New York City (details below). It was just announced this week that special guests at the LA show will include Shakina Nayfack (Transparent, Connecting, Difficult People), Andrew Rannells (Girls, The Blacklist, Book of Mormon), George Salazar (Be More Chill, American Crime Story, Superstore), Jason SweetTooth Williams (Be More Chill, Freaky Friday, WeCrashed), ​Richard Baskin Jr. (Freestyle Love Supreme), Emilie Battle (Broadway Bounty Hunter), Melanie Brook (Disney's Under Wraps), Bill Coyne (The Deuce), Summer Greer, Ian Kagey, Parissa Koo (Liv and Maddie), Lorinda Lisitza, José Restrepo, Brent Stranathan (The Black Suits), Max Wagner, and Jared Weiss (Dylan on Dylan).

"A brand new tune I wrote during the recording of Album, this was one of the last tracks we cut," says Iconis. "I've actually had the idea for the song for years, I just never knew how to finish it. I liked the notion of a trio of stories about people attempting dangerous, public feats: Tightrope Walking, Mountain Climbing, A Life in the Arts. Every time I put pen to paper, my own demons of distraction got in the way: boredom, exhaustion, self-doubt, general ennui, social media rabbit holes. Eventually, I realized the song wasn't about feats, it was about struggle. I knew from the beginning I wanted Molly Hager to sing it. Molly has been a great friend and collaborator for thirteen years and she has one of the most remarkable instruments I've ever heard. The tone and quality of her voice is unlike anyone else's and she's able to express so much in single words or syllables. There's a natural warmth to her sound which creates a strange tension with the material, which deals in technology and self-loathing."

Album hurtles through a cocktail of musical genres as its rogue's gallery of misfit children, reckless adults, and various assorted creatures sing their stories of love, hope, murder, resilience, and connection. Sprawling in its scope and intimate in its subject matter, the songs are a showcase of Iconis's singular ability to find moments of drama in the seemingly mundane. Gentle acoustic love ballads sit next to indie-rock stadium shout-alongs on an album that is both sweetly nostalgic and explosively contemporary. Featuring never-before-heard songs as well as Iconis classics recorded for the first time, this is a rowdy, erudite, epic record made for a world on fire.

"Over the last thirteen years, the gang and I have performed hundreds of gigs in New York City and beyond. Those songs have existed in fan-filmed Youtube videos, live captures and... that's it. Until now," says Iconis. "It has long been a dream of mine to follow-up our debut album with one that felt impossibly huge and really captured the 'we're all in this together' vibe of an Iconis and Family live show.

"When the pandemic hit, I became obsessed with making a piece of art that connected as many human beings as possible. I wanted to connect the artists in the room with each other and then connect the art we made to the listeners. Out of necessity, 2021 saw many people making music in home studios. With all due respect, I wanted to do the opposite. Something that felt alive and gargantuan, and something that sounded like there was no way it could have ever been recorded in a bedroom."

Joe Iconis is a musical theater writer and performer. He has been nominated for a Tony Award, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Outer Critics' Circle Awards, and is the recipient of an Ed Kleban Award, a Jonathan Larson Award, and a Richard Rodgers Award. Joe's musical Be More Chill (with Joe Tracz) played Broadway and London after a premiere at Two River Theater.

Its cast albums have been streamed over 500 million times. Joe is also the author of Love in Hate Nation and Broadway Bounty Hunter (with Lance Rubin and Jason SweetTooth Williams) and many more. His music appeared on Season 2 of NBC's "Smash," with his song "Broadway, Here I Come!" hailed by The New York Times as a new entry in The Great American Songbook.

Listen to the new single here:

Show Dates

6/22 - Los Angeles, CA - The Bourbon Room
7/08 - New York City, NY - Feinstein's/54 Below
7/09 - New York City, NY - Feinstein's/54 Below
7/10 - New York City, NY - Feinstein's/54 Below
7/11 - New York City, NY - Feinstein's/54 Below