Squirrel Flower Doesn’t Want To Make It Easy

Things haven’t gotten easier for Squirrel Flower’s Ella O'Connor Williams, and that’s not a bad thing. I first interviewed Williams over six years ago, as an Artist To Watch, before she became an established Chicago-based musician, put out three albums on Polyvinyl Records, and led an important boycott against one of the industry’s biggest music festivals. As a musician, her writing has only gotten stronger, her voice more dynamic, her vision more expansive. But in terms of artistry, not much has changed. That’s a good thing. Williams continues to be a fierce songwriter, documenting the spaces and landscapes she moves through and moving her spirit in return. I’m not trying to over-romanticize Williams. But there are some artists whose interviews feel as moving as the music they make. Williams falls into that rare category. Her new album out today, Say A Prayer To The Gods Of Getting Going, is sprawling and still. Within its 11 tracks are endless roads that nurture solitude; thirsty concrete and thirst for connection; the core tension between feeling immortal and sensing your human fragility, standing before the tongue of a swallowing horizon. Making art, especially in our optimizin...