Lindsay Lou – Ionia & you thought you knew

Lindsay Lou – Ionia & you thought you knew
HWF-RC #041
November 2025 ROTM
HWF Exclusive Yambu Berry colored vinyl
 
When Lindsay Lou calls, you pick up the phone. When she says she wants to press 2015’s Ionia to vinyl for the very first time to vinyl, you listen. When she tells you that Ionia only works out to three sides of vinyl, but she thinks her EP, you thought you knew from 2022 would fit on side four, you agree.

Ionia was recorded over four chilly fall days in a house in Ionia, Michigan in 2014. The album features long-term contributors; mandolinist Joshua Rilko, dobro player Mark Lavengood and bassist PJ George. Ionia was my personal introduction to the hotbed of Michigan based bluegrass talent emerging in the post Greensky Bluegrass boom.

The songs on you thought you knew were written during the Pandemic and she enlisted her Nashville friends and neighbors to record the songs with her at East Nashville’s Forty-One Fifteen studios with Dave O’Donnell as the producer. The EP includes Freedom, which was written with her former neighbor Billy Strings, at Lou’s kitchen table.

Our dear friends at Well Made Music did a phenomenal job of mastering the albums for vinyl before cutting the lacquers. Our very own, Matthew Heller lent his talents to the beautiful gatefold layouts and design. We then passed the project to our buddies at Pour House Pressing to get those tunes on wax. A huge shoutout to Kathryn Johnson for not only pulling some strings and nudging us along, but also handling the hype sticker write up duties. We finally got the long-time friend and fiend, Matthew Stafford of Front St Tattoo in Traverse City, MI to whip up the hype sticker artwork.