Nashville musician Jess Kerber will release her new album, The World Is Dark, but I Want It to Be Funny, on November 6 on Felte — and it acts as a continuation of the nuanced songcraft she developed on her debut record, 2025’s From Way Down Here. Where her first collection found her spinning stories of cosmic connectivity and our communal desire to belong, The World Is Dark, but I Want It to Be Funny feels closer to the bone, raw and curiously cellular. Its wistful poetry of transience feels like a natural evolution from the more cinematic scope of her earlier work.
Recorded almost entirely at her home studio with her partner Will Orchard, the album feels informed of its comfortable surroundings, even as it digs into deeper truths of identity and relationships, the way we view ourselves in relation to the world around us. “Recording in our home studio can be a long process,” Kerber says, “but it matches our pace of life; we’d clean up after dinner, make some coffee, and then record a few takes… we didn’t need or want to push anything.”
The influences are well and proudly worn: Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris. Though she injects each track with her own distinct voice and musical perspective, bounding from one sound to the next. The record is a living thing, built from experience but bound by nothing, a shifting world of aural introspection and realization. Our first glimpse into its recesses comes in the form of “Changing”, an acoustic wonder which rises and falls as Kerber’s voice breathes life into each moment. Slowly building its strummed atmosphere until she’s joined by a bit of light percussion and some wiry guitar lines, the song offers a brief window into this complicated world and gives us a fascinating taste of what’s yet to come.
Listen to the song below.
Tour Dates:
Sept. 23 – New York, NY @ Cassette*
Sept. 24 – Providence, RI @ Myrtle
Sept. 25 – Cambridge, MA @ Club Passim
* w/ Constant Smiles, Benoit Pioulard
The World Is Dark, but I Want It to Be Funny:
1. Familiar Strangers
2. Louisiana Song
3. When You Look Down
4. The World Is Dark, but I Want It to Be Funny (feat. Emily Hines)
5. A Size 2 Big 4 U
6. My Very Best Friend (feat. Constant Smiles)
7. Who Do You Know
8. Changing
9. All I Wanna Do Is Shine
The World Is Dark, but I Want It to Be Funny is due out November 6 via Felte. You can pre-order the album here. Follow Kerber on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
