The artist joins us to play a few songs from ‘Roll With the Punches’— a vulnerable, autobiographical debut encapsulating a lifetime of experiences and emotions

———————————————————————————————

Last August, Rebecca Porter dropped her debut album Roll With The Punches—a record that, as her first, is not just a result of a few years of writing but a lifetime’s worth of emotions and experiences. It’s a product of perseverance, of battles fought and odds overcome. Beyond struggle and survival, it’s rally cry and redemption—her wholly human journey, processed as art and pressed into permanence.

“There’s so many levels of vulnerability,” she told us of the album. “Not only is this a culmination of my life’s work so far, but also the record is very autobiographical… Putting that out in the world gave me this next level of empowerment for myself, And whether it was a story or an encounter that could’ve easily went a different direction, I have survived and overcome a lot of those things… or just become stronger and realized, too, what I’m about.”

During AMERICANAFEST, Rebecca and her band joined us at Dee’s Country Cocktail Club in Madison, TN to play a few songs from RWTP for the Bands do BK x I Know We Should sessions: “The Laundry Pile”; “Let Me Go”; and “No Evil”.

Of the latter song (“My existence defies / A problem you live to create / Hatred rounded up into lies / My existence cannot be erased”), she later shared:

“I wrote ‘No Evil’ in early 2024 as a clap back to condemn hatred and discrimination that seeped into close personal life and relationships. It felt unique compared to my other songs, much more anthemic and ‘take no shit’ than anything else I’d written. While I wrote the song to deal with occurrences very close to me, its purpose became larger than life as I continued to play it live and the song’s message connected with audiences.”

Or, more simply, as she told us at Dee’s: “I am a firm believer that hate has no place here.”

Now, and always, we couldn’t agree more.

In between the tracks, Rebecca also told us more about her artist, and human experience, speaking about the (many) spreadsheets powering her tour, a cosmic-country response to the ex that won’t stop sliding into DMs and “figuring out [her] shit” so she can be a better person and a better parent.

———————————————————————————————

Want more AMERICANAFEST? Check out our session with Leslie Jordan , Henhouse Prowlers, The Wood Brothers, Briscoe, Cat Clyde and Jack Van Cleaf!

Follow Rebecca at @rebeccaportermusic and add the music to your Spotify playlists!

Follow I Know We Should at @iknowweshould and subcribe on YouTube.

Credits: Sam Sumpter – Host // Brad Wagner – Video // Juan M Soria – Audio // Jamie Robertson – Lighting // Anna Lindqvist – Production Assistant // Arieh Samson – Production Assistant