Lydia Cash peels back the layers of her own life to share rich, evocative Americana-inspired rock music

Chicago Tribune

20-05-2025

'I kind of love that mix of excitement and fear, like on a roller coaster,' says Lydia Cash. Those warring emotions permeate Cash's latest body of work, including the singles 'We Can Never Go Back' and 'A Whole Summer of Loving You,' which were both released earlier this year. Confident and lyrically naked, Cash (yes, of that Cash family) peels back the layers of her own life — including the end of an eight-year relationship and marriage — to share rich, evocative Americana-inspired rock music. New and old fans can hear her latest tracks during a solo set at the Empty Bottle on May 23.
'I grew up knowing that I'm related to Johnny Cash, but it actually took me a really long time to realize the impact this man had,' Cash said about the famed country musician, her distant relative. 'I grew up thinking that he was a cousin who picked up a guitar sometimes. I didn't understand the weight of that until high school.'
Yet despite the family connection, music performance was not modeled to Cash during her childhood. Having grown up in a conservative home in a small town outside of Birmingham, Alabama, writing and performance were things she discovered on her own.
'Music is something that I've always naturally felt drawn to for as long as I can remember,' she said. By age 9, Cash was writing lyrics in a Lisa Frank notebook. During high school, she began singing in church. But it was college that proved to be a major turning point for the musician. There, she made friends with artists and writers around the Auburn, Alabama, music scene who inspired her to take performing seriously.
So she did.
In 2013, Cash moved to Chicago to pursue music and visual art. 'It opened up my entire world,' she said about the city. 'It's honestly the best decision I've ever made, moving here.' Yet music didn't always come naturally. Cash focused on visual art, her other talent, becoming a full-time painter by 2016.
The pandemic, like for many musicians, became a turning point. Cash and her then-husband moved to Nashville. 'I wanted to do the full thing. I wanted to tour. I wanted to play the big shows,' she recalled. The city, rich with songwriters pursuing country music, pushed her forward. 'Everyone's good there, so I really started digging in,' Cash added.
But after two years of Nashville's competitive, sometimes 'pay-to-play' atmosphere, Cash came back to Chicago. Surprisingly, it was here where she connected to the local country music scene filled with musicians, fans and two-steppers.
This found family filled with encouraging friends and collaborators has now made the music creation process easy and fulfilling for Cash. 'It's just the best, most humbling feeling in the world that my friends want to play my songs with me and share that experience with me,' she said. 'I think I just got addicted.'
And creating has been a healing, transformative experience for Cash. While going through her separation, Cash found music — not visual art — to be her strongest creative outlet. 'Writing songs was almost all I could do,' she said. 'It's all I wanted to do.'
Most of Cash's songs are a reflection of things happening to her in real time. 'Blush,' a sweet EP she released last summer, focused on the ups and downs — the intimacies — of new romance. Raw and vulnerable, Cash leans into her openness rather than shy away from it.
'I know that we all need more empathy. We all need more connection, and that's really the only goal at the end of the day,' she offered. 'To write a song that someone else is going to relate to in some way and feel that it's genuine.'
But her latest batch of music signals a new direction in Cash's life and musical direction. The single 'Joshua Tree,' released earlier this month, takes on a more structurally assailing tone. Grungy yet melodic, the track is about wanting to start over and feeling frustrated with your current situation. Inspired by a trip last year to the desert California city, Cash called it a 'symbolic trip' and the beginning of a new, unpredictable single life. 'I think part of that trip was learning to lean into my friendships and let people in. It was exhilarating,' she recalled.
That spirit will permeate Cash's upcoming record, titled 'Violet,' which is slated for release this fall. Filled with a mix of angry and restorative songs spun through ripping electric guitar solos, Cash said this new record is a reflection of everywhere she's been these last few years, and this invigorating, musically-rich state of her life.
'I truly just write when I feel like I've got something to say, or when the ideas are flowing, which I feel lucky about,' Cash began. 'Because lately, there's been a lot.'