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“This is a very nomadic album,” says Johnny Delaware. “I recorded it in studios in Mexico and the United States and in hotel rooms all across Latin America, and if you listen closely, you can hear bits and pieces of all those places and the people I met along the way. They’re all a part of me now.” 

It makes perfect sense, then, that Delaware would call his new collection Para Llevar, which translates roughly as “to go” or “to take.” Drawn from Delaware’s years of journeying—both physically around the world and internally to find himself—the record blends elements of Laurel Canyon and Latin America with dreamy, psychedelic production to forge a mesmerizing cultural swirl that transcends borders and traditions. Delaware produced the record himself in addition to playing nearly all of the instruments, and his performances are consistently warm and inviting, marked by airy, spacious arrangements centered on his raw, amiable vocals. The lyrics, meanwhile, are rooted in perpetual motion, in an endless, primal search for meaning and purpose and connection. The result is a deeply personal exploration of human nature as seen through the eyes of an itinerant observer, an intoxicating meditation on the doubt and hope and fear and love and loneliness that bind us all, no matter where we call home. 

“You could live happily in a tiny shack or be miserable in a sprawling mansion,” Delaware reflects. “The material things don’t change who you are. At the end of the day, you can’t escape yourself, no matter how far you go.” 

Born and raised in South Dakota, Delaware felt the pull of the road from a young age, and after dropping out of college, he spent his 20s drifting between Nashville, Albuquerque, and Austin, making music and picking up odd jobs to get by.  

“I went through a particularly dark patch in Texas,” he explains, “but music got me through it. That was the first time I realized just how powerful a song could be, how it could heal you and change your life. That’s when I knew I needed to make my own records so I could do the same thing for other people.” 

When a tree fell on his car and the insurance company paid out the exact amount he needed to record his first album, Delaware headed east to Charleston, SC, where he teamed up with producer Wolfgang Zimmerman for his 2013 debut, Secret Wave. The record earned glowing reviews, with the Charleston City Paper declaring Delaware a “born charmer” and dubbing him their Songwriter of the Year. Fate would soon intervene again, though, putting the brakes on Delaware’s solo career as another Charleston project he helped co-found, Susto, began taking off. Over the course of the next decade, the band would go on to become one of the most critically acclaimed names in indie roots music, garnering raves from Rolling Stone and Spin and touring with the likes of The Lumineers, Band of Horses, and The Head and the Heart.  

“While I was on a break from touring with Susto, an archaeologist friend of mine invited me to come down to Mexico,” Delaware recalls. “I figured I’d just be there a couple of months, but then life happened.” 

Or more precisely, love happened. Delaware fell for the culture and the food and the people and the art in Mexico City. He met his girlfriend, adopted a dog, and bought land. He recorded a second solo album, 2022’s similarly well-received Energy of Light, and continued bouncing back and forth across the border for tour dates with Susto while working on the songs that would become Para Llevar. 

“I decided I was going to produce this album myself, which was a huge leap,” says Delaware. “I’ve always had someone else to lean on, so I had to learn to trust my instincts and have faith in my intuition. When you can let go of all that outside stuff and remember that the only person you need to please is yourself, the pressure starts to melt away. I think there’s something really pure and beautiful about that.” 

That purity of intention is plain to hear on Para Llevar, which opens with the equal parts eerie and resolute “Jungle Full of Ghosts.” “I ain’t afraid to get lost down a backroad,” Delaware sings over hypnotic, minor key guitars, propulsive drums, and droning synths. “I ain’t afraid of the hard way or to be alone.” Like much of the album to come, it’s a track about staring down the face in the mirror, about reckoning with the past to become a stronger, more fully realized version of yourself in the present. The hazy “Running” comes to terms with the futility of trying to escape your history, while the dreamy “Darkness” wrestles with the siren song of cynicism and negativity, and the transcendent “Stubborn Faith” refuses to let the weight of the world dampen the desire to be a part of it. 

“You don’t have to pretend everything’s wonderful all the time,” Delaware reflects, “but if you don’t seek out the light sometimes, if you don’t make the room to let it into your life, the darkness will consume you.” 

And so Delaware embraces love over fear on the album, allowing himself to sit still long enough to appreciate the little moments of perfection that dot our decidedly imperfect lives. The bittersweet “Caution Darlin’” finds peace in the beauty of romance and true surrender; the gentle “Never Let Go” looks forward to the end of the road, when long-distance lovers can finally reunite; and the breezy “You Alone (Are The Revolution)” unlocks liberation from within. 

“The most radical thing you can do is be your most honest, authentic self,” Delaware declares. “Change doesn’t come from politicians or corporations; it comes from taking care of yourself and your community, from being a good neighbor and a good friend and a good family man.” 

Ultimately, that’s what Para Llevar is all about. No matter where we go in this world or what we consider home, it’s our responsibility to find the good and to take it with us, to go and to spread it as far and as wide as we can. After all, as any nomad will tell you, happiness isn’t a destination; it’s a journey.