Every Ghost [CD], Kelsey Waldon, CD

There's no real way around it: Kelsey Waldon's new album, Every Ghost, is heavy stuff. Across it's nine songs, she confronts addiction, grief, generational trauma, and even herself - and comes through it stronger and at peace."There's a lot of hard-earned healing on this record," Waldon says. As she sings in the album's title track and first song, "Ghost of Myself," she's put in the work not only to better herself and leave behind bad habits, but also to learn to love her past selves. Compassion is a throughline on Every Ghost, whether it's for Waldon herself, for the person in the throes of addiction in "Falling Down," or for a suffering world in "Nursery Rhyme." The people in Waldon's songs aren't irredeemable - they're struggling.