Willow Avalon Talks Embarrassing “Dumb Men” and Embracing Old School Country on Her Sophomore LP (Exclusive)

Willow Avalon has no qualms about speaking her mind. The breakout country star just released her sophomore album, Pink Pocket Pistol, and the 14-track LP is chock-full of man-hating bops, which stand apart from the back thanks to their classic country sound.

“It’s very murdery. It’s very me. It’s very sparkly. It’s very loving. It’s very forgiving. It’s really a roller coaster of emotions,” Avalon told American Songwriter of the album. “There’s a lot of songs about grief. There’s a lot of songs about absolute hatred. There’s a lot of songs about fun, sexy stuff, and there’s really sweet love songs, which I think is a really cool roller coaster to be on.”

Sonically, Avalon employed a Nancy Sinatra-esque feeling, so much so that the title track is “very much a nod and an ode” to iconic singer. She paired those “sexy vintage vibes” with “crisp new vocals and recordings” as she made the largely live-recorded album.

Willow Avalon Discusses Collabs on Pink Pocket Pistol

Sinatra wasn’t the only country star Avalon took cues from on the project. “Hypothetically Speaking,” for instance, was an homage to The Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl.”

After she and her co-writers penned the murderous tune, she could think of no one better to sing it alongside than her friend, Kaitlin Butts.

“I said, ‘Hey, you want to feel like coming in and singing a song about killing your hypothetical husband?’ She says, ‘I love singing songs about killing my husband, and I have a husband!’” Avalon recalled of Butts. “That song is just so freaking fun. It was just awesome.”

She also teamed up with Jason Isbell for a collab, which was a dream come true for Avalon, as she’s been “a huge fan of his music and his storytelling for a really long time.”

“He came in and sang, and we’re kind of kindred spirits in the sense of our Southern trauma humor. We were just having a really good time. He’s really lovely,” she said. “That song has just turned out way more beautiful than I ever could imagine.”

Willow Avalon Breaks Down Pink Pocket Pistol

Elsewhere on the album, on “Work to Do,” Avalon sings about “a dumb man” who couldn’t “get it together.”

“I wrote that song for him in the sense that you can yell at a man all you want, you may be mad, or you may be sad, but the thing that I’ve found hits the hardest is that you’re disappointed,” she said. “They have work to do on themselves.”

On “Easy on the Eyes,” meanwhile, Avalon sings a “fun, sexy, sad Western song” about discovering unexpected darkness in a guy.

“It’s the push and pull of what a really handsome cowboy can do to your heart, which is something that I feel like so many people relate to,” she said. “Sadly, I think we should cancel cowboys.”

Avalon’s preferred song on the LP, though, is “Hex.” The track features Avalon’s favorite lyric she’s ever written, which came after a guy “did me about as dirty as I think that a human could possibly be done.”

“After he did these terrible things, he sent me a bouquet of flowers to my door in New York City that says, ‘I’m so sorry. You’re the best thing that ever happened. You’re my dream girl. This is the lowest ever been in my life,’” she recalled. “But he spelled every single ‘your’ wrong.”

Avalon’s response? “I put those flowers right on the curb, took a picture, sent it to him, and I said, ‘Don’t speak to me ever again.’”

Later, she wrote, “I threw out the flowers you sent my door / Along with the card / Where you poured out your heart / I read it and laughed / ‘Cause you couldn’t spell your.”

“It’s my favorite verse we’ve ever written,” Avalon said. “I wish him all the worst.”

Willow Avalon Is Hitting the Road

Now with her album out, Avalon is gearing up for her own headlining tour, as well as few shows supporting Brooks & Dunn. She recently met the country duo at the ACM Awards, where they offered up their “free holy grail tips” unprompted.

“Take your vitamins, read your Bible, and eat asparagus,” Avalon recalled the guys telling her. “I think I blacked out. I was peeing my pants laughing. That is now my motto for life.”

While Avalon is “very excited” to support the pair, she said that her favorite shows are her headlining ones.

“I just love to get to meet everybody. It’s probably my favorite thing,” she said. “… I’m just really excited to play these songs that mean so much to me.”

Photos by Silken Weinberg