William Prince Performs From His New Album, 'Stand in the Joy'

'Stand in the Joy' by William Prince
( Courtesy of Six Shooter Records )

Alison Stewart: This is All of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Juno Award-winning singer, songwriter William Prince is on tour with a show in New York tonight in support of his latest album, Stand In The Joy. I mentioned the Juno Awards because Prince grew up on the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba and released his debut album in 2015, eventually winning a Juno Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, and a nomination for Indigenous Music Album of the Year. He released two follow-up albums in 2020.

He's performed with musicians from Buffy Sainte-Marie to Willie Nelson. Now he's out with his fourth album with some help from Country super producer Dave Cobb. A review in the Associated Press calls the album "A showcase for William Prince's noble baritone". He'll be opening for the Nashville-based duo, The War and Treaty tonight at the Bowery Ballroom. First, he joins us here in studio with his baritone, that comes with his whole self as well, and his guitar. William, welcome.

William Prince: Hi Alison. Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: You are going to play a song for us. What are we going to hear?

William Prince: I'd love to. The first single from the record. This is When You Miss Someone about the joy and privilege that it is to mean that much to somebody, that when you're apart from them, that you feel that beautiful longing. I think so many of us went through that in the time we just lived through, and so naturally fit that era before we depart into the realm of total joy and such. [laughs] All right.

[music-Prince William-When You Miss Someone]

Is the moon shining bright where you are?

Is it even shining at all?

Running like a white line

Down the middle of

Some old memory

Does the evening unfold in waves?

The desire to be nowhere

But to go out and rage

Like a time when it was more than

Just some old memory

When you miss someone

Tears you apart and then some

When you miss someone

Someone you loved

Is the silence quiet or loud?

A lifetime of questions lost and profound

Professin' to a silhouette of trees on the ground here in front of me

When you miss someone

It tears you apart and then some

When you miss someone

Someone you love

Now a tear in your absence, my mind doin' backflips, reserve tank running on "E"

Enter galactic, enter the static, searching for a memory

Oh when you miss someone

When you miss someone

Tears you apart and then some

When you miss someone

Someone you love

When you miss someone

Someone you love

When you miss someone

Someone you love

When you miss someone

Someone you love

Alison Stewart: That's William Prince. William, when you announced the album you wrote online, "These aren't the first songs I have written while in love with someone. These are the first songs I've written while loving someone." How do we hear that distinction in your writing?

William Prince: I think it was a real discovery in taking stock of all that, that I think a lot of us have fallen in love. Have been in the state of falling, but to evolve past that, that honeymoon stage, and to be in this place where-- I got engaged in December and I'm in this new territory of life now where I've been with this woman for some time, and she's really elevated my expectations and standards for what it is to be loved and to love somebody, to learn and to calibrate, to unlearn some things.

It's really contributing to my joy all around because she, along with my son, they so readily choose joy. That hasn't always been easy for me. This album is very much a declaration, this is a boundary of protection saying that though I've come through some hard times, though I've felt shame and fear to share these good times and out of not wanting to be insensitive to those in the struggle around me still, now is my time to proclaim and say, you know what? I'm happy I'm in New York City opening a show for one of my favorite groups ever.

I'm sitting here with you talking. This is a reason to be joyful. This is a reason to proclaim how happy I really am.

Alison Stewart: What has that done for your creativity?

William Prince: Right now, my creativity is at a-- it's always going. I like to say it hasn't changed much. I just sit at a less stressed-out table where your basic needs are met. I used to worry so much about my cell phone bill and wondering about groceries and how do I make this month work while still pursuing songwriting? I've had an ongoing list of really great breaks that have brought me to this place, and I'm just always trying to practice the gratitude. Joy, it does make it easier to practice that gratitude that maybe sometimes we're lacking on when we're going through a difficult time.

That's always been the background of my whole foundation, is gratitude and acknowledging that tough times pass, and that tough people will continue on doing what they love.

Alison Stewart: I have to remember sometimes, every storm runs out of rain. You mentioned your son. When you look at your Twitter bio and your Instagram bio, it says Wyatt's dad. [laughter] It also says you live on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Why are these things that you want people to know about you up front?

William Prince: This is the core of me. If we're not touring, if we're not writing music, I'm still going to be hopefully a good father always to my son. He's growing and changing. He's like the best TV show I could watch with all this character development. Every season just gets better and better. I just want to shout at how incredible he is. Same thing, I being a First Nations person, that's the preferred nomenclature in Canada of the American Indian than the Native American. I'm First Nations from Canada. I reside on Treaty 1 territory that's been there thousands of years before me.

It's a nod to one of the seven sacred grandfather teachings of humility, acknowledging this place where I come from, because it's important to reclaim that. Indigenous people have been stripped of their culture, their language, their hair, their children being sent to residential schools. All this hardship that my family still feels the effects from, and I still feel the effects from. It's a reminder of where I've come from so that I can fully revel in the joy and the success that we're living today because it's important to show that too.

Alison Stewart: My guest is William Prince. The name of the album is Stand In The Joy. He's playing Bowery Ballroom tonight with War and Treaty. Could we hear another song?

William Prince: I'd love that, yes. This is a song I wrote in tribute to the late great John Prine the morning after he passed away. I got up and my partner said love is like that, it gets easier and harder as you're doing all those things where we're getting to know each other. That's what this is about.

[Music-William Prince - Easier and Harder]

Love's a situation, manifestation,

Representation of what we like in someone

Who might go the distance

Be blowin' in the wind with

Beginning and the end

Over and over again

Well, the truth about love

It don't come all at once

It gets easier and harder all the time

And if you don't give up when pushin' comes to shove

It gets easier and harder all the time

Well, the house that you build

Will stand for much longer

Leave your ego outside

Makes the foundation stronger

If you learn to compromise it'll spare you some hell

Honey, we just might make it

In spite of ourselves

Well, the truth about love

It don't come all at once

It gets easier and harder all the time

If you don't give up when pushin' comes to shove

It gets easier and harder all the time

Yeah, the truth about love

It don't come all at once

It gets easier and harder all the time

And if you don't give up when pushin' comes to shove

It gets easier and harder all the time

Alison Stewart: That's William Prince. The name of the new album is Stand in the Joy. On this album, your second time working with producer Dave Cobb, who's worked with Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell. All people we really like.

William Prince: All those up-and-comers.

Alison Stewart: Yes, those kids. I think they'll make it. What does he add to the process? How does he helps you find the best in you? That's a producer's job.

William Prince: Great producers do facilitate that. My good friend told me, "We're always here to serve the song." That's what I see in Dave Cobb's work is he's so passionate, he meets you as an artist in the middle and is not afraid to take the reins and try something new. He's very good at setting his intention and getting things done. Sometimes I can sit on things long and trouble with execution sometimes so it's nice to have somebody there that feels so confident in what they're doing and is excited.

Sometimes you can approach it like, "How are we going to make this song?" Whereas he's, "How are we going to make this song kind of a thing." That's the really great part of having somebody like him, helping out when you're making your music. He's just so knowledgeable, so genuine, so easy to be around, and you get there, and you're like, "This is the guy making all my favorite music?" He feels like a friend right away. I'm so lucky and fortunate to have worked with Dave and call him a friend.

Alison Stewart: There's a song on the record called Goldie Hawn. It mentions just a lot of cool women Georgia O'Keeffe and Joni Mitchell and how gracious and effortless these women are in their art. Is that a song of appreciation or is it a love song?

William Prince: It's all the things. Alison, I am, by definition a feminist, and the people that really helped my life run the way it runs are women. In the First Nation's culture, the Anishinaabe way is that we consult with our matriarchs. We let the women make the decisions and that's how it used to be and that's the way it runs the smoothest. My whole label at Six Shooter Records in Canada, predominantly, I'd say 85% women who do an incredible job for me all the time. My manager Shauna and Helen and just everybody there at Six Shooter.

My wife is on the road. She sings in the band with me, beautiful harmony. She sings all the harmonies. Alyshia Grace does all the harmonies on this record. My tour manager, my front of house, everybody that helps my universe stay together are all women.

Alison Stewart: We'll keep that in mind as we go out on Goldie Hawn. My guest has been William Prince. He is at Bowery Ballroom tonight with War and Treaty. The name of the album is Stand in Joy. Can you take us out on Goldie Hawn?

William Prince: Yes. Stand in the Joy is very much about choosing that path of goodness and happiness and you said a love song. This is very much a love song to my partner who is beautiful, loyal, hilarious like Goldie Hawn is and gorgeous like a work of Georgia O'Keeffe and musical and full of dance and loveliness like a Joni record and beautiful like flowers in the garden. Naturally, this is the one.

[Music-William Prince - Easier and Harder]

She's a movie you leave on

Cactus Flower Goldie Hawn

Mercy in the way she talks

Easy answers sweet surrender

Feels like the sweet surrender of love

She's a record on the table

Reckless Daughter Joni Mitchell

Grace inside the way she carries

A willing heart that still surrenders

Sounds like the sweet surrender of love

She's a picture in the gallery

Music, Pink and Blue Georgia O'Keefe

See her timeless modern beauty

On display when she surrenders

Looks like the sweet surrender of love

She's a flower on the ledge

Yellow Zinnia, Black-eyed Susan

Watch her grow into herself

Give her attention sweet surrender

Live in the sweet surrender of love

She's a movie you leave on

Fleur de cactus Goldie Hawn

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.