Before “Three Generations” became a song, it existed as just a title. The seed of an idea. One that would blossom into a single from Audrey Spillman’s star-studded third album, which has the potential to be a breakout for the songwriter.
Ms. Spillman had invited Natalie Hemby, a member of the country music supergroup The Highwomen, to her home to write a hymn. Ms. Hemby arrived with the song name. The two started talking about what kind of inheritance they’d like to leave their children. Something beyond money.
“What we were talking about is the legacy of faith,” says Ms. Spillman, whose new album “Nightingale” comes out in May. “Passing that down to your child, you know, and equipping them with that so they can then equip their children with it.”
Why We Wrote This
Legacy and faith play integral roles in Audrey Spillman’s latest album. She says it’s about being grounded, and leaving something authentic behind.
Ms. Spillman’s first verse is autobiographical: “My great grandma Opal began a legacy. With one hand on the Bible, she changed our history. Passed it down to her daughter, to her daughter, down to me.”
“Three Generations” occupies the center spot on “Nightingale,” an album that Ms. Spillman describes as a journey from “hell to hallelujah.” A mental pilgrimage. The song order is roughly structured as such. She’d always been a churchgoing Christian. But faith was more peripheral than central to her life, and rarely part of her songwriting.
But during the five years since her previous album, “Neon Dream,” she embarked on a spiritual journey that inspired what she calls “the most important record of my life.” “Nightingale” has a sound that’s part cloudy Southern Gothic, part sunny Southern Gospel. Its guest stars, who include Mindy Smith, Garrison Starr, and John Moreland, reflect Ms. Spillman’s rising stock in the world of Americana.
“Audrey has an authenticity about her that flows into her songs,” says Tommy Emmanuel, the renowned Australian songwriter and guitarist, in an email sent via his publicist. Ms. Spillman sang backing vocals in the music video for Mr. Emmanuel’s single “Maxine,” from his 2025 album “Living in the Light.” “She has a deep feeling for telling a story and finding the best way for her to sing it,” he says.
Ms. Spillman moved to Nashville when she was a teenager. Her parents had just split up.
“Anxiety is something that I’ve always struggled with,” she says. “People that come from divorced families probably do because you’re dealing with trying to find stability.”
Ms. Spillman, her parents’ only child, got 50/50 custody of their musical tastes: outlaw country and Pink Floyd on her father’s side; Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and Aretha Franklin on her mother’s side. She married those influences in her songwriting after her father gave her a guitar on her 16th birthday.
“One day, I was watching CMT and this girl was on – Mindy Smith,” she says. “I was like, ‘Who is this girl?’ And that kind of really took me down another path with music.”
Through a process of networking after college, she landed a songwriting credit on a 2010 album by Christian music artist Amy Grant. That was Ms. Spillman’s first co-write with Ms. Hemby, who was on a fast track to stardom after writing hit songs for Miranda Lambert. Ms. Spillman’s own career track took the scenic route. Following the release of her first two albums, which made more ripples than splashes, her husband and producer Neilson Hubbard proposed they move from Nashville to a farmhouse in Kentucky.
One day, when Ms. Spillman was out walking with her young son in his stroller, a stranger yelled out a greeting. It was a neighbor who introduced herself as Kelly and invited Ms. Spillman inside. The songwriter’s instinct was to keep on walking, but something told her to accept.
“We became friends and she asked me to come to a Bible study,” Ms. Spillman says. “I was kind of reluctant at first, but then I did. And all of a sudden I found myself on a Saturday night, like reading my Bible. And I’m like, ‘Who am I? What?’ But I found myself starting to feel grounded.”
The words in Scripture came to life in a way they hadn’t before. Ms. Spillman’s anxiety lifted and, for the first time in her life, she found peace. The musician not only started singing at church but was also re-baptized in a creek near where she lives. Her faith also fed her songwriting. One of her catchiest new songs, “Keep on the Move,” references the courage of Esther, the Old Testament queen of Persia who’d hid her Jewish identity but ended up saving the Jews from slaughter. Voice at full torque, Spillman sings, “Wake up my child, and know you’re free.”
“The veil over our eyes, it’s like we become captive to so many things, whether it’s fear or dread or loneliness or not feeling worthy,” she says. “There’s so many things you can name that we just create these jail cells for ourselves.”
Ms. Spillman co-wrote “Keep on the Move” and also the album’s title track with Ms. Smith, who also appears on the latter song following a meek request.
“I just was starstruck, honestly, because I was like, ‘Mindy Smith is in my house, on my couch, singing,’” she says.
Ms. Spillman’s debut album, “Thornbird,” featured a single live-take duet with the late Kris Kristofferson, whose autograph is framed on the wall of her office. Her recent single, “Meet Me at a Dive Bar,” also features a male voice: Americana star John Moreland. The song recounts how a friend arranged the first meeting between Ms. Spillman and Mr. Hubbard, who is an in-demand producer, music video director, and singer-songwriter. As for the more faith-influenced tracks, Ms. Spillman says that talking about Jesus and religion had felt taboo. Now, it’s an inextricable part of her story.
“Run Run River,” is about that journey. The composition came together in 10 minutes – “I just feel like something just, like, came through me” – and features a smoke-charred vocal over acoustic guitar and a sound design that evokes images of banshees howling in the woods.
“I had this image, like, with the lyrics, it’s been a while, been some time since my soul was rectified, since I felt the light on my skin,” Ms. Spillman says. The song, she says, is about “getting away from yourself and needing to come back again to God. Like coming back to who you are.”
