Getting out of the way: English songwriter Beth Orton let the words come to her for 'Weather Alive'

Sep. 22—Like many others, Beth Orton will have internal conversations with herself.

Oftentimes, the ideas scurry away as fast as they appeared.

Yet, there are moments that stick around for decades.

"I think I always have to keep refreshing the page," she says. "After each album, I tell myself that I'll never make another record. Then a new one will come out of nowhere and reveal itself."

Orton's latest release is "Weather Alive," which was her first album in six years.

The English singer-songwriter will make two stops in New Mexico along with her band on Sunday, Sept. 24, in Santa Fe, and then on Monday, Sept. 25, in Taos.

Orton says she is always writing, which keeps her mind busy.

"Weather Alive" was released in September 2022, but the work on the album began years before.

Orton says while writing this album, the songs began to flow out of her, but she remained cautious.

"It was a special and beautiful thing," she says. "It's like getting on a horse. It was slow and unusual and had many twists and turns. At the end of it, I wanted to make it the best piece of work."

During the tour last year, Orton played "Weather Alive" almost exclusively in her set.

With her shows in the United States, she's taking a step forward and performing songs that she's never done live before.

"These are songs that as I've grown older, I've explored more and come to appreciate them more," she says. "I'm also looking at what songs fit together. I've gone through my catalog and gone through each song. The songs on this tour are the ones that need to be heard. I'm bringing the straggler songs back into the fold."

Orton rose to fame during the mid-1990s during the singer-songwriter explosion in music. Her debut album, "Trailer Park" was released in 1996 and followed it up with the album, "Central Reservation" in 1999.

Looking back at her career, she's proud to see plenty of growth, not only in her performance, but in her writing.

" 'Central Reservation,' it's a beautiful song, and it's quite a corny song," Orton says. "It's about how you embrace and celebrate the song. It's about the feeling of getting your hands dirty with someone. There's an innocence in that and I enjoy not feeling shy about it. Some of my older songs are a bit corny in the grand scheme of things. I'm enjoying bringing that song into my world and getting myself out of the way."