Richmond, Virginia-based songwriter Lucy Dacus is the latest addition to Matador Records roster. The 21-year-old’s debut album, No Burden, which was released earlier this year, is out now digitally, with a re-pressing of CD and LP formats, due on September 9th.

For a behind-the-scenes look at Lucy’s life on the road, which includes recent headlining shows, SXSW, and dates with Daughter, Houndmouth, and Julien Baker, a new video set to “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore” can be viewed below. She’ll be heading out on tour in the States with The Decemberists, Frightened Rabbit, Julien Baker, and Car Seat Headrest and will be heading over to the UK in September for End of the Road Festival.

The 21-year-old Dacus grew up in Richmond, Virginia; she was adopted at a young age, an experience that informed her curious, openhearted songwriting. “When my parents were explaining what adoption was—which was very early on in my childhood—they always said that my birthmother thought I was worthwhile even though she couldn’t be my mom,” she says. “And so from essentially infancy, I was taught that life was innately worthwhile because a bunch of people had worked together to set me up with one.”

Dacus started playing around Richmond while in college, opening for local acts and eventually meeting Jacob Blizard, a guitarist who invited her to make a record for a college project of his. No Burden, which originally came out in February 2016 on the Richmond label EggHunt Records, opens with the forthright, almost brutally honest “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore,” the last song Dacus wrote before the album’s day-long recording session at Starstruck Studios in Nashville. Dacus delivers scalpel-sharp observations about resisting pigeonholing over chunky guitars, ticking off ideals of femininity and youth until the track’s not-quite-resolution.

These themes extend to the lyrics of songs like “Strange Torpedo,” a whirling portrait of a friend whose “bunch of bad habits” who, Dacus sings, has “been falling for so long… [and hasn’t] hit anything solid yet.” “I’ve been that friend watching a loved one do what they know is bad for them and not understanding why,” says Dacus. The song offers a simple message: “I love you, why don’t you love you? You’re the one in your body so you get to choose what to do with it, but if I were you I’d treat me differently.”

The rest of No Burden, which was produced by Collin Pastore, puts Dacus’s voice center stage, allowing the glinting poetry of her lyrics to shine even more brightly. “Trust,” which Dacus wrote in late 2013, showcases her alone with her guitar, her faint vibrato floating over strummed chords as she sings of self-redemption. And the diptych “Dream State…” and “…Familiar Place,” which revolve around Dacus repeating “Without you, I am surely the last of our kind/ Without you, I am surely the last of my kind,” capture disappointment and loss in a jaw-dropping way; the music trembles around her while her voice stays steady, anticipating whatever might come next.

Tracklisting:

1. I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore
2. Troublemaker, Doppelganger
3. Green Eyes, Red Face
4. Strange Torpedo
5. Dream State
6. Trust
7. Map On A Wall
8. Direct Address
9. Familiar Place

7/11 – Grand Rapids, MI – Meijer Gardens Amphitheater – w/ The Decemberists
7/12 – Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater – w/ The Decemberists
7/17 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
7/19 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
7/26 – Columbus, OH – The Basement
7/27 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
7/28 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
8/4-8/6 – Olga, WA – Doe Bay Resort and Retreat
8/7 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
8/8 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios – w/ Julien Baker
8/10 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
8/11 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
8/13 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
8/14 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar
8/16 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Bar-B-Q
8/17 – Dallas, TX – Three Links
8/19 – Nashville, TN – The Basement
8/20 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade – Purgatory
9/3 – Salisbury, UK – End of the Road Festival
9/6 – London, UK – The Old Blue Last
9/13 – Baltimore, MD – Ram’s Head Live – w/ Frightened Rabbit
9/17 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair – w/ Car Seat Headrest
9/18 – Montreal, QC – Bar le Ritz PDB – w/ Car Seat Headrest
9/19 – Toronto, ON – Virgin Mobile Mod Club – w/ Car Seat Headrest
9/21 – Detroit, MI – El Club – w/ Car Seat Headrest
9/22 – Urbana, IL – The Pygmalion Festival
9/24 – Cincinnati, OH – MidPoint Music Festival
9/25 – Cleveland, OH – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum – w/ Car Seat Headrest