Lara Ruggles’ new record Anchor Me, her first release under her own name in 9 years, is a return to form, a rediscovery of Ruggles’ vulnerability both in lyricism and production. Ruggles grew up 40 miles outside of Tucson on 7 acres surrounded by cattle ranches, her songwriting emerging from the isolation she felt. Eventually she moved to Denver, from where she spent the better part of a decade touring and performing, firmly rooting herself in the Colorado folk scene. In 2016 she returned home to Tucson where she started her project Sharkk Heartt, which allowed her to explore songwriting through infectious electro-pop anthems that marked a distinct departure from her previous sound. It was only recently that Ruggles found herself collecting songs (and writing a few new ones) that didn’t seem to have a place to go, songs that felt too intimate and personal for Sharkk Heartt.

The songs on Anchor Me are compassionate and warm, even while circling deep pain and loss. The arrangements are left open, alternating between piano ballads and understated folk-rock that allow Ruggles’s powerful voice to soar through the mix. Whether she is delivering a gut-punch of a realization or a contemplative rumination, the songs feel close, tangible, and real. “This album represents a return to myself in a way.” Ruggles says. In ‘Love Me Instead,’ she looks boldly at the discrepancy between the love we ask for and the love we receive. In ‘Luckier,’ she tries to make sense of falling in love while the world is in turmoil. In ‘Hard Road’ she cracks open her relationship with the music industry itself in a heartbreaking meditation on the artist’s path in the modern world, a relationship that had been a catalyst for leaving behind her own name in the first place. It is the healing of this wound that has allowed Ruggles the opportunity to be bravely, boldly, herself.

“I don’t expect the industry to be different than it is.” she says. “I’m ready to put something a little more intimate and personal out there, and I don’t have everything in my world riding on whether or not this album breaks even or allows me to make a decent living. It’s freeing.”