Nashville-based singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun teases new album, releases single

Critically acclaimed Nashville-based singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun is expected soon to release her third album in four years.

The latest single from that forthcoming album is "Drugs," an unnervingly bright pop-soul ballad about the performer "feeling like my vices weren't vice-ing hard enough," she says via a press statement.

"I think it became really easy for me to medicate my anxiety or anger or disillusionment instead of addressing those things head on," she says. "This song is about realizing that and finding a new way to get by."

She sings: "I'm not sober I'm just over-trying to smoke away the rage."

Over the past few years, Oladokun's desire to deal with what she perceives to be the social uncertainties of the modern era have been shared by her and her fellow tour-mates and collaborators, who include Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Jason Isbell and Noah Kahan, plus John Mayer, My Morning Jacket, Pink Sweat$, Leon Bridges and Manchester Orchestra.

Oladokun — a proud queer Black person and the daughter of Nigerian immigrants — has excelled amid these pressures, with moments that include performing at the White House as part of the signing ceremony for the Respect for Marriage Act. As well, she has appeared on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," "CBS Saturday Morning," "Today," PBS' "Austin City Limits" and NPR Music's "Tiny Desk (Home) Concert" series.

Notable, too, was her appearance at Dolly Parton's CBS-broadcasted "Pet Gala" event in February. The Hall of Famer's moment shared onstage before Oladokun sang her 2021-released "If You Got a Problem" was described by The Tennessean as feeling "not awkward, but (rather like) a colliding of brands and creative universes underpinned by the same level of relentless empathy."

Alongside her forthcoming album, Oladokun will tour throughout the rest of 2024, including dates with Hozier and Tyler Childers, plus select headline shows.

About the delicate balance of maintaining her mental health while surging in underground-to-mainstream acclaim, Oladokun offered the following to The Tennessean in April 2023:

"As an artist and human who shares their heart and life, I want to empower people into themselves but that world need not be within the boundaries of my own personal universe."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville-based singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun teases new album, releases single