Jessi Colter Returns With First Single in Six Years, ‘Standing on the Edge of Forever’
The First Lady of Outlaw Country has returned.
In an exclusive premiere with Rolling Stone on Wednesday, Jessi Colter debuted her first new single in six years, “Standing on the Edge of Forever.” The song opens her new album, Edge of Forever, the next chapter of her storied career, out Oct. 27 on Appalachia Record Co.
The 10-track collection is the long-awaited follow up to 2017’s Lenny Kaye-produced The Psalms. “It was really sheer enjoyment for me to be able to do, because I really hadn’t planned anything much further,” said Colter in a statement. “Edge of Forever is a love project.”
The LP promises to be a culmination of the legendary singer’s work and was produced by Nashville singer-songwriter Margo Price and mixed by Colter’s son Shooter Jennings.
“When the force of nature that is Jessi Colter rolled into my life and picked me up in her Mercedes convertible, I knew I was in for a wild ride,” said Price, who also contributed vocals, guitar, and percussion to the record.
When remembering Colter singing “Standing on the Edge of Forever” and “Angel in the Fire” from the upcoming project, Price said she was “blown away.” She added, “It was such refined writing, the work of someone who had been continuously, quietly honing her craft. I knew she had to make another album and told her I would love to be a part of that experience.”
“Standing on the Edge of Forever” brings back Colter’s keen sense for soul-shaking, psychedelic rock and sets the tone for the album as she sings of seeking new horizons. “It’s now or never,” Colter declares on the track. “I’m walking in the sunshine/Birds overhead they sing to me of things to be.”
Edge of Forever will span the past decade and beyond with unreleased songs written during the outlaw era’s golden age in the 1970s by Colter and her husband Waylon Jennings, who died in 2002. Her 12th studio album is also billed as a union of old and new, with “long-lost sheet music discovered in an old briefcase, newer gospel-influenced numbers, honky-tonk hymns and collaborations with her daughter, Jenni Eddy Jennings.”
The record was recorded alongside a live band including engineer and guitarist Alex Munoz, pianist Micah Hulscher, guitarist Jamie Davis, bassist Kevin Black, drummer Dillon Napier, pedal steel and dobro player Luke Schneider, and guitarist and harmonica player Jeremy Ivey.
Colter, who catapulted outlaw music to the Top 40 with the 1975 hit “I’m Not Lisa,” was the lone woman to feature on 1976 compilation Wanted! The Outlaws — the first country album to be certified platinum — alongside Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Tompall Glaser. Colter will head out to Nashville on Sept. 20 as part of AmericanaFest.
Edge of Forever Track List:
1. Standing On The Edge of Forever
2. I Wanna Be With You (feat. Margo Price)
3. Hard On Easy Street
4. Lost Love Song (feat. Margo Price)
5. Angel in the Fire
6. Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus
7. With or Without You
8. Fine Wine
9. Maybe You Should (feat. Margo Price)
10. Secret Place (feat. Jenni Eddy Jennings)