For folksinger Willi Carlisle, singing is healing and by singing together, he believes we can begin to reckon with the inevitability of human suffering and grow in love. Rooted in the eclectic and collective world of his live shows, Carlisle’s third album, Critterland, takes up where his sophomore album, Peculiar, Missouri, left off, transforming Peculiar’s big tent into a Critterland menagerie and letting loose the weirdos he gathered together. The album is a wild romp through the backwaters of his mind and America, lingering in the odd corners of human nature to visit obscure oddballs, dark secrets, and complicated truths about the beauty and pain of life and love. (IV-PR, 2023)

Produced by the GRAMMY Award-nominated Darrell Scott and to be released on January 26, 2024, by Signature Sounds, Critterland considers where we come from and where we are going. On the album, he takes on human suffering through stories about forbidden love, loss, generational trauma, addiction, and suicide, believing that by processing the traits and trauma we inherit, he can reach a deeper understanding of what it means to succeed and to exist.

“It’s kind of about getting a little older, moving from hard drugs and hookups to bedroom sex and pharmaceuticals,” says Willi Carlisle of his latest single “When The Pills Wear Off.” “It’s an amalgam of queer stories that I’ve heard, lived, and seen.” Devastating and gorgeous, Carlisle’s fingerpicked ballad serves as the penultimate tune from his upcoming album Critterland—and a flawless example of the songcraft that’s garnered fans like Tyler Childers and BJ Barham.

Carlisle is donating a portion of the proceeds from streams and purchases of “When the Pills Wear Off” to Hope in the Hills, a West Virginia-based charity focused on recovery and wellness in Appalachia. “After losing friends to overdoses, after witnessing the stress that hidden lives and quiet desperation causes people, I decided I wanted to sing about addiction,” says Carlisle. “So, I’m partnering with Hope in the Hills to raise awareness and funding to help those in need. Too much of country music glorifies abuse, murder, and poverty in the name of shock and sales, and I want to fight the stereotypes. Let’s share music about our struggle and triumph! Let’s celebrate love and mourn the dead. ‘When the Pills Wear Off’ is a really sad song, I know, but I hope it brings some joy into the world.”

The funds raised by this single will specifically go to Hope in the Hills’ music therapy program, which conducts regular sessions at recovery houses in East Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, and West Virginia, and additionally supports music therapy through WVU Medicine’s Opioid Unit, Troublesome Creek Stringed Instruments, which employs folks in recovery to build musical instruments in EKY, and a recovery-to-work stagehands program through Recovery Point West Virginia.

Fans can hear “When the Pills Wear Off” today and pre-order or pre-save Critterland ahead of its January 26 release.

Critterland track list:
Critterland
Dry Country Dust
The Arrangements
The Great Depression
Two-Headed Lamb
A Higher Lonesome
I Want No Children
Jaybird
When the Pills Wear Off
The Money Grows on Trees

Catch Willi Carlisle on tour:
February 1 – Newport, KY – The Southgate House
February 2 – Columbus, OH – Rumba Cafe
February 3 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe
February 4 – Lakewood, OH – Mahall’s
February 7 – Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark
February 9 – Chicago, IL – Schubas Tavern
February 10 – Kalamazoo – MI – Bell’s Eccentric Café
February 12 – Wisconsin Dells, WI – Showboat Saloon
February 13 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
February 15 – Des Moines, IA – xBK
February 16 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
February 17 – Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
February 18 – Oklahoma City – OK – Resonant Head
June 2 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater*
June 5 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre*
June 7 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre*
June 8 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre*

* Supporting Tyler Childers