2026-10-10 · LyricalSource Editorial
Jess Williamson explains the mother tribute in Dark Day in Dallas
Williamson says a decade-old idea finally became a song with four fellow writers. Her new album credits confirm the collaboration behind Dark Day in Dallas.
Jess Williamson has explained how a song about her mother, begun more than a decade ago, finally took shape with four fellow songwriters. In her October 9 artist-written track-by-track for FLOOD, she describes the writing session behind Dark Day in Dallas, the sixth track on A Mile South of Heaven.
A personal subject she could not finish alone
Williamson says she had carried the opening idea for years without finding a way to complete it. Writing about her mother felt too personal and important to get wrong. The breakthrough came during a week in upstate New York with Courtney Marie Andrews, Lola Kirke, Cornelia Murr and Katie Pearlman.
On the final night, Williamson brought the unfinished idea to the group. Murr had already spent time with Williamson's mother, which Williamson says helped the song develop. She recalls the five writers becoming emotional as they worked: her collaborators helped her put her own story into words while thinking about their mothers, too.
The five writers behind the song
The artist's album catalogue and credits confirm Williamson, Kirke, Andrews, Pearlman and Murr as the writers of Dark Day in Dallas. It is the listed exception to the album's otherwise Williamson-only songwriting credits. The collaborative credit therefore matches her account of how she found a way through this particularly difficult subject.
A Mile South of Heaven is listed as released on October 9, 2026. Its album credits name Shooter Jennings as producer, Mark Rains as recording engineer and mixer, and Pete Lyman as mastering engineer. The linked Bandcamp page is a listening and album-information route; the new FLOOD commentary provides Williamson's own explanation of the song rather than an interpretation inferred from its title.
Archival photo: Jess Williamson singing with a guitar at SXSW in 2019, not the 2026 album sessions. Photo: Paul Hudson, SXSW 2019 - Jess Williamson, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Resized and converted to WebP for display.
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