With The Hurting Kind, John Paul White has crafted a stunning album that draws on the lush, orchestrated music made in Nashville in the early 1960s. Yet these songs retain a modern feel, whether he’s writing about overwhelming love, unraveling relationships, or fading memory of a loved one. 

White lives in Florence, Alabama, not far from Muscle Shoals. He has cultivated a music career in Nashville for two decades, first as a songwriter, then half of The Civil Wars – a groundbreaking duo that won four Grammy Awards before disbanding in 2012.

Because The Civil Wars were so hard to categorize, White has earned a fanbase among indie rock listeners, folk audiences, Americana outlets and AAA radio. So, what will happen if people hear The Hurting Kind and call it country? “Well that doesn’t scare me in the least,” he says. “As a matter of fact, it kind of thrills me.”

Between Heaven and Earth, the haunting and deeply personal new album from Alicia Witt, arrives August 28via Thirty Tigers. Recorded live in New York City with producer Joe Henry and a band assembled specifically for the project, the album exists in a space suspended between transcendence and intimacy, channeling what Witt describes as “eternal unconditional love” and “the place suspended between heaven and earth.”

The album was profoundly shaped by the influence and memory of David Lynch, whose impact on Witt stretches back to her first film role as Alia in Dune at age seven. “I can’t imagine who I would be without David Lynch,” Witt reflects. “He is weaved throughout the fabric of my life.” Throughout Between Heaven and Earth, Witt explores what she learned from Lynch “regarding love. The eternal nature of it, the idea that only love is real.” She describes his presence as palpable throughout the making of the record: “David was with us every day in the studio. All six of us in the band felt his presence.”

While widely recognized for her acclaimed acting career spanning film, television, and stage, music has remained a constant throughline in Witt’s life. A classically trained pianist who supported herself as a musician when she first moved to Los Angeles, Witt has long integrated music into her creative identity, both through her own songwriting and in many of the roles she has portrayed onscreen. She's released multiple full-length albums, including Revisionary History (2015), The Conduit (2021), and I Think I'm Spending Christmas With You (2024). Between Heaven and Earth represents the latest chapter in that ongoing musical journey.

Tracked live over four days with vocals and instrumentation recorded simultaneously, the album embraces what Witt calls a “visceral and eternal” energy, one that “could never be replicated.” Guided by Henry’s vision and the chemistry of the musicians in the room, the songs were created instinctively and in the moment, with minimal overdubs and an openness to what Witt repeatedly refers to as “that place” — the transcendent emotional state she connects to through Transcendental Meditation, prayer, creativity, and Lynch’s work itself.

The songs on Between Heaven and Earth explore themes of longing, fate, healing, surrender, nostalgia, gratitude, and connection through what Witt describes as a lens of “insistent optimism.” The title track embraces “a mystical connection with a brand new person,” rooted in “childlike faith in the possibility” and the belief that “it does no harm to dream.” On “Artifacts,” Witt examines “releasing ancient lessons that no longer serve,” gently excavating old wounds and learning “how to love.” “Kindred” channels the feeling of “walls crumbling” and “barriers evaporating in a fabric made of light and destiny,” while “Build Me A Dream” reflects on “constructing the reality we wish to exist in” and recognizing “an eternal soul connection.”

Elsewhere, songs like “Freeze Frame,” “Test Drive,” and “Blue Moon” meditate on alternate timelines, nostalgia, and the peaceful acceptance of connections that were not meant to remain. “Thank You,” featuring John Paul White, transforms heartbreak into gratitude, reflecting on relationships that “cleared the way for new relationships and opportunities to come in.” On “Love Anyway,” Witt sings about unconditional love that remains even when unreturned: “The love is what’s important. You love and give love without condition or expectation.”

Closing the album is “The Director,” a bonus track Witt describes as “communication with David” and “a collection of his words to me since he passed away.” The song was completed spontaneously during the album’s final day in the studio, recorded in a single uninterrupted performance while the microphones continued running during lunch break. “I just knew when I played this one that it had arrived and was complete at last,” she recalls.

For Witt, Between Heaven and Earth is ultimately about connection — to spirit, to memory, to other people, and to something larger than ourselves. “Too often, it seems to me, people imagine love in a vacuum,” she explains. “I know love to be eternal and unconditional.” The result is an album rooted not in bitterness or regret, but in surrender, gratitude, wonder, and the belief that “only love can change minds and hearts.”

“What all of these songs have in common is that there is no bitterness, no angst, no revenge, nothing resembling hatred or regret,” Witt says. “This is my offering. May it bring you exactly where you need it to bring you.”