Phoebe Hunt's Fiddle-Forward New Album 'Nothing Else Matters'

Celebrated singer/songwriter/fiddle player Phoebe Hunt releases her new album Nothing Else Matters via Thirty Tigers. Featuring nothing more than her vocals and fiddle, this is Hunt’s most stripped-down work to date.

Through eleven powerful and haunting tracks, all written by Hunt with co-writers including Maya Devitry, Jillette Johnson, and Dustin Welch, she grapples with the existential implications of what it means to be both an artist and a human being. 

Phoebe Hunt on releasing the new album: “For years, I have been fortunate enough to play with some extremely talented collaborators.  My hope is that never ends, but this album gives me the chance to learn how to stand firmly on my own two feet, rooted in the song in my heart.”

After years of writing, recording, and touring with genre-bending folk band The Belleville Outfit, and more recently as bandleader with her own backing band The Gatherers, Nothing Else Matters is Phoebe Hunt in her rawest form.

Thematically the album features a fluid sense of questioning with songs like the existential, fiddle-fueled “Galloping,” as well as an undercurrent of strength seen in the coming-of-age title track “Nothing Else Matters,” and a sweet tenderness in love songs like “Molly, My Dear.”

The final takeaway is a deep, authentic expression of a woman who knows she is in fact enough. In spite of her circumstances, in opposition to the difficulties, she has the answer to all of it already—flowing through her hands and across her instrument, moving through her chest and out of her mouth. 

“I came to see that my voice and fiddle are enough, that I am enough,” Hunt explains. “I believed that standing on my own two feet, with the instrument I’ve given thirty years of my life to, singing the songs that come from my heart can be enough. And I hope this record can give that kind of permission to the listener, allowing them to find their truest expression, no matter what their limitations or circumstances look like.”

Phoebe Hunt 2023 Tour Dates

July 29 - Lyons, CO @ RockyGrass Festival 2023 Wildflower Pavilion
August 3 - Annandale-on-Hudson, NY @ Bluegrass on the Hudson
August 4 - Brooklyn, NY @ Skinny Dennis
August 11- Lyons, CO @ Rocky Mountain Folks Festival 2023 Song School Teacher
August 12 - Homewood, IL @ Trail Mix Acoustic Concert Series
August 14 - Peoria, IL @ 3300 Event Center
August 15 - Rockford, IL @ Anderson Gardens
August 16 - Cambridge, IL @ Ca d'Zan House Concerts
August 17 - St. Louis, MO @ Blue Strawberry Showroom Lounge
August 18 - Paducah, KY @ The 1857 Hotel
August 19 - Joliet, IL @ Porch & Park Music Fest

Photographer Credit: Nicola Gell