Katie Dahl Releases New ‘Wildwood’ Album

Katie Dahl is releasing her new album, “Wildwood.“ The family property she visited as a child on Wildwood Road inspired the name of the album. Photo by Kelly Avenson.

Door County creatives are often inspired by the deep, familial roots that brought them there, and Katie Dahl found hers in her grandmother’s 80-page, self-published autobiography. Wildwood, released today, is heavily inspired by those type-written family tales.

The fifth song on the album, “Good Northern Ground,” was the one that really kicked off this journey of familial exploration. Dahl was on a plane between Paris and Stockholm that had to make an emergency landing. It somehow propelled her to consider her Door County roots.

“I found myself thinking about what it would be like to be an immigrant and what roots I come from in that way,” Dahl said. “I didn’t expect the rest of the album to be about that.”

But it was: an exploration of the six generations of family members who had settled in Door County from Sweden. It swirls around ideas of home and why you leave it. And why you go back.

The property she visited as a child on Wildwood Road was where her great-grandfather was born, where her grandmother was born and now where her uncle lives. It inspired the name of the album.

“I thought that word was so interesting,” Dahl said. “It’s scary, but dark and beautiful – all of those things at once.” 

She recorded Wildwood in Nashville, and JT Nero of the roots band Birds of Chicago produced it. Dahl’s past albums were recorded with Dave Alley, and although she loved the work he’s done, she wanted to see what it was like to record somewhere else for this body of work. 

It was important to her to choose a producer who understood what Door County is about, and Nero fit the bill after many summer visits to the peninsula. Plus, Dahl is quite a fan of Birds of Chicago, which has played a couple of sets in the county.

Dahl also trusted Nero to pick a talented set of Nashville musicians to be featured on the album. The only person Dahl knew in the room was her husband, Rich Higdon, who played bass.

“That was a whole new world,” Dahl said. “Coming into a room fresh, you’re able to interact musically with people in a way that isn’t related to any personal knowledge, which is nice.”

Not having met them before, it was also intimidating to share such personal work, but Dahl was more focused on rising above the cold she had leading up to recording.

Featured on the album were harmonies from Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago, Po’ Girl); drummer Jamie Dick (The Milk Carton Kids, Rhiannon Giddens); violinist Kristin Weber (Dolly Parton, Kacey Musgraves); and multi-instrumentalist Steve Dawson (Bruce Cockburn).

The team recorded the album live over three days – something Dahl had never done before. She’s always recorded each part individually, so it was cool for her to record with everyone playing together in one room.

Taking a more sit-back approach and not having entire control over the recording and producing processes allowed the album to take on a more natural sound and made for a less neurotic process for her, Dahl said.

“I will re-record a part, like, 20 times,” Dahl said. “Like, I can sing it better, I can sing it better. And it makes you crazy. And it doesn’t result in a better performance. It results in a more strained, weird performance.”

There have been a lot of firsts for this album – including drums throughout, recording outside of Door County, featuring outside musicians and being on vinyl.

“All the cool kids are making vinyl,” Dahl said with a laugh.

It’s also her first time hiring a publicist. She’s promoted her work on the radio before but didn’t focus on much else that was necessary to gain traction in the music industry. Fundraising allowed her to take that leap.

Dahl’s kickstarter campaign for Wildwood was the most successful yet, raising nearly $40,000 through incentives such as merchandise; framable, hand-written lyrics; and dinner at the Dahls’ house or a private concert at the donor’s house. 

“I was super grateful,” she said. “Door County is such an amazing place to live because people are really interested in the arts, and they’re really generous and willing to help out. I feel very supported by the community.”

Dahl has a series of album-release shows during the weekend in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago, and she will likely make stops in Minneapolis, Sheboygan and Iowa along the way. She’ll be touring out east in November and April and – “fingers crossed” – going on her first European tour in March.

Door County listeners can look forward to her release concert at the Door Community Auditorium on Nov. 30 with Birds of Chicago, Luther Dickinson, Amy Helm and Grahame Lesh. 

“I’m excited for people to listen to the album. … I feel like I forget about that in the hullabaloo,” Dahl said.