Video: Watch John Paul White Perform Solo In Studio

Formerly one-half of the beloved Americana duo The Civil Wars, John Paul White is about to release his first album of solo material since 2009. Titled Beulah, after the realm of poetic inspiration in the mythology of poet and philosopher William Blake, the new collection of songs was birthed after White returned home to his family in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, after the Civil Wars’ breakup in 2013. “It’s a place that you could go and escape, and heal, and center and get everything together,” says White, “and then you had to come back to this Earth. But it was a place of repose. And I thought that’s just perfect for these songs and this section of time I spent writing them.” NPR’s Benjamin Naddaff-Hafrey wrote: “With Beulah, White emerges as if drawn by song from a quiet life, drawn with that romantic regret.”

White visited Houston Public Media’s Geary Studio to record the songs “What’s So” and “The Martyr,” both off the new album, which will be released on August 19.