I heard Thao went away for a while to get her head right. I heard Thao went to a shack in the middle of the Mendocino Forest to think hard thoughts and discover brutal truths. I heard she’d joined an Oakland slam poetry collective and was working on a cool novel about food justice. Someone told me she wrote this whole album while staying in a friend’s house near Half Moon Bay, watching the waves come in all hella hard from El Niño. She spent time at a farm somewhere making preserves and jellies too. Who was it that said life is what happens while making other jams? Someone, I’m sure of it.Thao is back and things are good. She has a beautiful voice and she writes wonderful songs. Psyched for her new album.[Pre-order A Man Alive]