The breaking point is nothing but a glimmer of faint light way out on the horizon behind Kristen Ford. On her newest album, ‘Pinto’, the queer, biracial, L.A. songwriter blasts way beyond the point of caution and unveils a wild landscape of visceral emotion.
Ford’s world is one of the deepest feelings: whether fuming at queer repression, falling head over heels in love, or learning to finally and wholeheartedly practice true self-acceptance. ‘Pinto’ is a place where she can be candid enough to openly share her losses while being mindful enough to acknowledge her wins. In revealing both her scars and her successes, Ford raises a spirited cry that invites the listener to boldly embrace themselves, to take up space, and to loudly state that “enough is enough”.
The lessons that Ford explores on ‘Pinto’ are those learned the hard way: from helplessly watching the state-sanctioned suppression of queer rights in the US, through finding new love after a gut-wrenching divorce, and from the daily microaggressions that come with being sold a patriarchal expectation of ‘womanliness’.
With a series of acclaimed releases under her belt, no one could accuse this veteran songwriter of lacking poetic nuance, but it is hard to ignore the raw and undiluted messages that are contained within Pinto. “You can’t control me, my pride or my joy, I don’t owe you a damn thing, if I’m a girl or a boy” she rages in her honeyed-husky vocals on “Wild Heart”. Elsewhere, she sneers “Raise your glass to the mighty Mississippi, and God bless a Southern man, how quickly you forget my great great great grandmother, she died picking cotton on stolen land” on “White Man’s Dream.” ‘Pinto’ is undoubtedly Ford’s most political, most pointed, and most energizing outing yet.
What sets Ford apart from her similarly enraged songwriting allies is her unique ability to craft these feelings into candy-coated rock that uses its sweet exterior to deliver these bitter truths. Whether it’s the realities of living outside the “good ole boys party” contrasted against the crunchy guitar bounce of “White Man’s Dream”, or the plight of the lost millennial on the undeniably smile-inducing single “Here’s To You Kid”, Ford deftly navigates uncomfortable topics with clarity and purpose. Elsewhere, she breaks the tension by making space for moments of queer joy on “The Fall” and “Brand New Pair (Alright)”, and radical self-acceptance on “Grrrl In The Mirror”.
It was at a Ford show in 2022 that she first caught the ear of legendary songwriter Ani DiFranco. It was to be another pivotal DiFranco moment for Ford, who credits attending an Ani show at age 15 as the spark that led her to become a songwriter. Over the preceding months, the two struck up a working relationship that has since seen them tour together and co-write four of the twelve songs that will appear on ‘Pinto’. Their connection continues with the release of ‘Pinto’, which arrives on August 22nd via DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records.
‘Pinto' would not be the dynamic, ass-kicking, name-taking, barnstorming experience it is without the team of trusted collaborators that Ford carefully assembled to bring this album to life. Initial tracking began with engineer Matty Alger at The Cabin in Ford’s then-hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, took a Louisiana detour for overdubbing at DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Studios before arriving at John Driskell Hopkins’ Brighter Shade Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Hopkins, who is perhaps best known as a founding member of Zac Brown Band, has also built a distinguished career in his own right as a songwriter and producer. With Pinto he takes on the role of producer (alongside Ford and co-producer DiFranco), wrangling all these parts into the carefully crafted final album, while also co-writing the uplifting ballad “Richest In The World” and lending his rich baritone voice to that song and others on Pinto. The final polish arrives courtesy of multi-platinum GRAMMY-winning mastering engineer Randy Merrill (Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo) at Sterling Sound in New Jersey.
In its journey traversing the nation, ‘Pinto’ is dappled with color and flavor as varied as America and reflects Kristen’s experience as a lost millennial, roaming endless freeways in search of the truth. The truth, as far as ‘Pinto’ is concerned, is that YOU still matter. Working people, women, queer people, immigrants, creators in their 30s and beyond, still matter. We didn’t time out on that. It is an album that embodies Ford’s belief that “the rulebook has been thrown out by the current administration, but we can turn this disorder back on them and boldly create the world we want.” Or, as she puts it in her less guarded moments, “it’s time to be louder, be bigger, be brasher motherf*cker!”
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