Who: Erika Wennerstrom

From: Austin, TX

Song: “Extraordinary Love” 

Latest Record: solo debut ‘Sweet Unknown’

What About It: “This song is really a continued theme. It’s a mantra of self love. The words could seem like analogies but it pretty biographical. I went down to the amazon jungle on a trip in 2015 right before the last Heartless Bastards record Restless Ones was released. I was at a point where I was deeply unhappy, and on a whim, I decided to do an Ayahuasca retreat. Despite the idea frightening me, I felt I needed something to change within me so bad that I had nothing to lose. It really opened the door and started me on a path to many self realizations. The band decided to take a hiatus the following year and I spent quite a bit of time hiking and reflecting in the mountains of West Texas in Big Bend national park. That’s where a lot of the ideas for the album came to me, and I spent the next year working on it. The song is the realization I do everything in my life for love. We all want to be liked and to give and receive love. If I can’t be kind and loving to myself how can I expect anybody else to. It’s starts with me. I find the most extraordinary thing is to be truly compassionate to yourself.”

 

 Erika will be making appearances at this year’s Newport Folk Fest on July 27th and then at Atwoods Tavern in Cambridge on the 29th. Heads back south to DC, Maryland and PA before coming back to Vermont at Billsville house concerts on August 6th. Get out and catch her live folks.