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When beloved singer-songwriter Dawn Landes was approached by playwright Daniel Goldstein about the possibility of collaborating on a musical, she immediately knew the story she wanted to tell. She handed him a copy of Tori Murden McClure’s bestselling memoir, A Pearl in the Storm, the true story of the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. They both knew it would be no small feat to take the tale of one person in a boat in the middle of the Atlantic and turn it into a musical that now showcases ten characters, a small orchestra, and eighteen songs. But much like the play’s lead character, Landes has always been up for a challenge.

“I read about Tori’s first attempt when I was in high school and it stuck in my brain. Just the idea of it was powerful—a woman, from my hometown, in a boat alone rowing across the Atlantic. I don’t see a lot of hero journey stories about women, and this one is all true and it combines adventure, enlightenment, and solitude.”

In the seven years she has been writing and arranging these songs Landes could have never predicted how relevant the theme of solitude would become with the rise of a global pandemic. Yet while worldwide lockdowns have made the show and its music even more timely, it also kept the play from premiering at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer. Like almost all play productions, that will be postponed. Instead, this fall Audible will release a theatrical recording of the show.

But Landes felt it was the right time to share the music from the show. “My intention was to release the album the same day as the world premiere this summer,” she says. “It was disappointing to have to postpone the show but I feel lucky to be able to share these songs now, in a time when so many people are feeling alone and at sea in the midst of everything.”

Landes is perhaps best-known for her precise songwriting and textured vocals on her previous five albums and five EPs that meld elements of indie rock, alt-country, and folk. Songs such as “Try to Make a Fire Burn Again”, “Bodyguard”, and “Straight Lines” have built her reputation as one of our best independent singer-songwriters, showcasing an ability to tell stories that makes her the perfect choice to write the songs for a musical like ROW.

The show’s songs not only resonate in these trying times, they also make up an album that is a remarkable production and a collection of moving, powerful songs that take us on a journey with an unstoppable woman. There’s the rousing show-stopper “Independent Spirit,” about conjuring all of our courage in the face of impossible odds, backed by a cooing chorus and lyrics that illuminate the long legacy of pioneers who refused to be quelled by daunting obstacles. This theme is expanded on in “Mount Everest”, a track that features a more intimate and stripped down performance.

Landes has managed to create a soundtrack that is simultaneously consistent and eclectic. A lamenting fiddle drives the dreamy waltz “Dear Heart” while the Jewish music tradition steers the prayerful “Avinu Malkeinu, Star of the Sea” and elements of Shakespeare’s King Lear inform the tempest-conjuring “Third Storm, King Lear”. “Second Storm, Hamlet” showcases Sonus

Choir, a Nashville-based classical a capella choir, in a collaboration that Landes says was a highlight of the project.

There is also the showstopper “Row”, in which the spirits of Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, and Cher, (voiced by singers Carly Johnson, Sheryl Rouse and Kimmet Cantwell, respectively) act as sirens of encouragement to the show’s heroine. Other guests include Will Oldham offering a moving reading of the tender love song “Second Time Around”; Brigid Kaelin providing soaring vocals on “Oh Amelia”, a duet with Landes; Tyrone Cotton singing as Muhammad Ali on “What Would Odysseus Do?”; and Ben Sollee as Tori’s sweet middle school crush on “Ode to Eric Fee”. Renowned pianist Rachel Grimes’s playing is also showcased throughout, along with a host of musicians performing at the tops of their games. The guest list reads like a who’s who of Louisville-based musicians, fitting since it’s also the hometown of Landes and the play’s subject, Tori Mulden McClure.

However, just as McClure is the center of this story, Landes is the vocal heart of the album, revealing a tremendous musical range and the best songwriting of her career on a stellar collection of songs that delve into profound themes creating an epic told in the most intimate of ways. “I’d never thought of songs in terms of their function before. Usually if I write a song it’s for me, to help me work through something or grapple with something, but writing for theater is different. In a longer narrative the song has to do something from beginning to end,” Landes says. “On top of that, I was writing as Tori, or an eleven year-old Tori, or as Muhammad Ali or Amelia Earhart. I’ve taken on characters before in my writing but never to this extent. It’s been a deep dive.”

Landes also produced the recording. “I had a vision for this album and felt I knew how to accomplish that. It was a beast of a project, definitely the most grand production I’ve ever attempted for a recording.” She credits Broadway veteran Mary-Mitchell Campbell, the show’s music director, as the being responsible for the grand choral arrangements on the album. “I feel so lucky to have worked with her and learned from her over the years.” The string arrangements are by Scott Moore, a Louisville-based composer and violinist. Landes’s work as a sound engineer on recordings by the likes of Hem, Joseph Arthur, Ryan Adams, and others also makes for a seamless sonic experience throughout.

All of these forces come together to create ROW, an album that is so captivating and full of heart it is able to exist as its own lovely entity even for those who haven’t yet had the opportunity to see the musical. ROW is not only a testament to the strength of one woman who was determined to cross the Atlantic on her own, but also to the transformative and healing power of music.