Erika Wennerstrom Takes Bastard Breather

Erika Wennerstrom, the guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for one of our favorite bands – Heartless Bastards – is taking a break from that Cincinnati outfit to deliver her debut solo album. Sweet Unknown will be released March 23rd via Partisan Records.

Inspired in part by a hallucinogenic Ayahuasca retreat a “deeply unhappy” Wennerstrom undertook in the Amazon jungle in 2015, the album is “really about my journey of self-awareness and healing and finding acceptance and self-love. It’s very empowering,” she says. Of what sets it apart from a Heartless Bastards record, she elaborates: “It’s just more of me. It’s as simple as that. I was able to get deeper and you get another level of my heart and soul.”

She’s been tapped by the Drive-By Truckers to open their spring dates, so if you’re in Macon you can catch her in the opening slot at the newly renamed Hargray Capitol Theatre on the night of her album’s release.

Photo by Linda Beecroft.