Elle King's 'Come Get Your Wife' celebrates country music, self-awareness, having fun

Elle King's most infinite talent as a musician does not manifest itself via her banjo strumming, songwriting prowess, or soulful vocal phrasing.

Instead, because her mind, body and spirit are finally connected via the power of country music, she's finally -- after 33 years -- a wholly self-aware person able to write powerful, human songs that still celebrate the art of having fun.

"Country music lets me enjoy not having to be someone that I'm not," says King to The Tennessean.

January 2023 finds Elle King sitting backstage at the Ryman Auditorium conducting the media day for "Come Get Your Wife," her third studio album in eight years. She's focused but relaxed.

Most importantly, though, she can gaze back at her life. Instead of cringing at the absurd yet painful insanity of jet-set living, whirlwind romances, domestic violence charges and two decades of alcohol-soaked nights on multiple coasts -- which led to exasperation in the album's title -- she's able to sigh.

Her emotional and physical scars are sacrifices worthy of how incredible it is to sit squarely at the intersection of where country and rock music can synergize as the leading definition of American pop culture for a new generation.

"Yes, I have regrets," she says. "But I wouldn't change anything about my life. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. That's what they say, right? The fact that I'm able to finally find joy in who I am and what I've done is a testament to me getting out of the way of my feelings about all of it."

For the past decade, leaning into embodying the "fun party girl" facets of her personality saw her punk attitude enter the room long before she arrived. Unfortunately, that energy created a bizarrely prodigious yet stagnant career that -- until 2022 -- did not connect with fans in a manner that feels equal to her talent level.

King's 2015-released debut single "Ex's and Ohs" is the type of superstar-making song that should've presaged astonishing levels of pop-crossover success. However, the song's tale of multiple intercontinental love affairs gone wrong -- though provocative -- stands in the way of her authenticity.

Though a Grammy-nominated Billboard chart-topper, the song bathes in the ocean of metaphorical bloodletting of her raucous, ribald existence. It mutes the totality of the soul of the 33-year-old who claims Jackson County, Ohio, in her roots.

It's easy to get caught up in the polarizing ephemera of her life. She's the daughter of actress and 90s supermodel London King and comedian Rob Schneider. And she's a charming conversationalist able to discuss the writings of author, poet and Time Magazine-described "laureate of American lowlife" Charles Bukowski or rockabilly fashion.

King's 2022 embrace of country music as her "home" genre was not just an acknowledgment that her aesthetic and musical roots blended best with country's stereotypical underpinnings.

It was also her moment to emerge as more remarkable than the stereotypes that had ultimately constrained her potential.

"Country music has been so giving to me. The fans support me because they see themselves in my music," says King.

Half of her success celebrates the "lucky twist of fate" that she calls her ability to conjure the fun yet messiest stories of her 20s into songs that spur her fans to party hard.

However, if listening to "Come Get Your Wife," the album does not start with her country radio hit and Miranda Lambert duet "Drunk (And I Wanna Go Home)" or anything leaning in the alternative rock direction that has most broadly defined her career so far.

Instead, the self-described Cancer with a Gemini rising (research notes those at this conjunction lead an "isolated" life filled with "rich, even excessive fantasy," where they "lack peace of mind to realize their thoughts") sings "Ohio," a string-led ballad that describes her grandparents' rural, Southwest Ohio home of Wellston, Ohio (population > 6,000).

Her roots are the "rock" of her existence where her "most loving and vulnerable" self resides.

Also vital to her success in country music is her ability to showcase her inherent musicality.

She recalls her time spent in Brooklyn as a teenager seeing a band playing the intimate Jalopy Theater and using a banjo as a "beautiful, percussive, resonating, string instrument" -- and not the favored instrument of bluegrass and country acts she learned to respect as a child, like Earl Scruggs and Hank Williams.

The moment -- given that King was a Suzuki Method-schooled violinist -- changed her trajectory into the music industry.

"[The banjo] made me learn to respect the dedication and love required to make magical, spiritual music that is so many things and tells beautiful stories."

As well the banjo has led her to Dierks Bentley.

Along with serving as a co-host for the 2022 CMA Fest ABC television program, the 19-time country chart-topper has been her collaborator on two songs (2016's "Different for Girls" and 2021's "Worth a Shot") and a fellow banjo and bluegrass adoring champion of her work who has eased her development as a mainstream country artist.

"When Dierks champions and believes in something, the ripples [his belief] causes are everlasting. He brought me into country music by allowing me the room to be myself -- and for people to accept it. I'm grateful for that."

As previously noted, King's Zodiac signs foretell a perpetual desire to sit in a self-imposed, metaphorical shell while being unable to find the time to have solace amidst the madness. Impressively overcoming her stars by "brick by brick" removing the lifelong defense mechanism of being a "class clown who makes fun of herself before everyone else" has refreshed her existence.

"Come Get Your Wife" succeeds in King -- alongside collaborators like songwriters including the trio of Bobby Hamrick, Ella Langley and Matt McKinney, plus background vocalists including Ashley McBryde -- writing songs appealing to people who, in theory, are on society's wild fringes. However, take a tour of any dive bar in America and its people for whom these songs are their truth and who are the life of the party.

Spell "Tulsa" backward and the fact that her latest single released from her forthcoming album is not a song extolling the virtues of wholesome middle-American values and "red dirt" country songs emerges.

Laughing, King offers that songs like "Tulsa" work because they accurately describe the worlds she deftly walks between as an emerging mainstream rock and roll superstar.

On the one hand, she's engaged to tattoo artist Dan Tooker. Plus, she's the mother of a two-year-old son, Lucky. But, as well, she's -- as noted in "Come Get Your Wife" album track "Bonafide" -- a "blonde-haired, nutcase, freakshow, certified damn maniac."

"I'm not a super-inebriated party animal anymore. Now, as much as I'm the last one at the party and the first person up in the morning, I also like to wear sweatpants at home while watching movies and baking sweets and savory pies for my son."

"As a songwriter, the more honest I am, the more sides of myself I reveal. Sad, silly, whatever. In the grand scheme of things, I want people to enjoy who I am," King says emphatically.

When asked to describe what she looks forward to the most in 2023, her cheeks blush and her smile widens with excitement.

"I feel the fire and fuel of rowdy, anthemic feelings in singing songs that are the soundtrack of the lives that I and my fans lead. However, I'm still also trying to find my footing [with that fire], too. The more I open up though, the better I become as a friend, mother, performer and person, overall. This album reflects the most fun experiences I've had in my life."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Elle King's 'Come Get Your Wife' celebrates country music, self-awareness, having fun