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Lady Lazarus – “Train Song” (video) (Premiere)

The dreamy and evocative piano ballad "Train Song" comes from Lady Lazarus' recently dropped LP, Miracles.

Not long after she finished recording Miracles, her third LP as Lady Lazarus, Melissa Ann Sweat moved to Joshua Tree, located in the California High Desert. The area’s musical legacy is well documented; musicians such as Gram Parsons took quite a liking to the desert’s dry and seemingly mystical environs. For Sweat, the move to Joshua Tree facilitated the enhancing of her already well established artistic profile. As tunes like the lovely “Train Song” evince, Lady Lazarus’ shift from comparatively lo-fi sounds to more potent balladry, due in part to trading out electronic keyboards for a baby grand piano and the addition of strings, French horn, and flute, has proven a boon to her songwriting process.

You can exclusively watch the “Train Song” video below, which adds to the song’s tender piano chords with visuals of Sweat and her partner holding each other close in the desert.

Lady Lazarus tells PopMatters about the video, “I had written this song a long time ago, and was inspired to write my own ‘Train Song’, as some of my idols like Tom Waits and Vashti Bunyan had theirs. It’s wonderful and uncanny for the song to fit so well now after all these years into the context of Miracles. Through some of the songs on this album, including this one, I’ve come to terms with a lot of my past demons, family struggles and strife being among them. I’ve reached a far better place though I still struggle with it from time to time, but much of my progress I owe to my partner, Chris. You’ll see him in the video as my knight in country armor. Much of the inspiration for this album I owe to his love and support, and I’m honored to share about it here.”

Miracles is out now via Queen’s Ransom. You can purchase it below via Bandcamp: