Sarah Lou Richards will tell you that she was born in Wisconsin. But the folk-Americana musician known as SLR was born in Nashville. After releasing her debut EP, Emerald City, in 2009, Richards recruited BlackHawk frontman Henry Paul to produce her first full-length, 2010’s Ruby Red Shoes. Last year, she teamed up with The SteelDrivers’ Gary Nichols to record the duet “I Ain’t Easy to Love” at the legendary FAME and NuttHouse studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Those sessions were so successful that Nichols signed on to produce her sophomore full-length. Richards has shared the stage with globally recognized artists like Jamie O’Neal, Sarah Siskind, and Gabe Dixon and opened for nationally touring acts like Bombadil and Woody Pines. Nichols says it best: “For me, what it comes down to is that the girl can sing. Or, the way I say it down here in Alabama, that girl can sang.”