On Juana Everett’s Alex Muñoz-produced sophomore album, released in May of 2026 on the Barcelona-based Great Canyon Records, the Spanish-born artist grew up and grew into her influences in spades. One of the greatest feats of songwriting, of any writing, really, is arranging words into combinations that no one else has ever constructed before. Contrarily, there’s also a challenge in taking a phrase or expression that’s been echoed a million times, and using it in a way that forces the listener to really think about these familiar words. In both cases, this is where a record like Past Lives in California thrives. As the title suggests, Everett has left a whole lot of living behind.
Her songs have the effect of flipping a light switch on and off, getting a single word or phrase or riff so stuck in your head that it floats around in there for hours. Everett’s music is intimate, yet it rocks in true Americana tradition. At times it embraces simplicity; at other times its focus is vast. In effect, it sums up the rawness and malleability of oneself and one’s relationships during the transition from hopeful to accomplished. “Maybe it can remind somebody that whatever they’re going through, it’s just a chapter,” she mused, “and one day they’ll move on to the next one.”
Nothing is more interesting to Juana Everett than a place she doesn’t know, the next turn in the trail, the new person in the room. She’s an explorer and an adventurer at heart. Her first effort was the self-released Move On in 2021 that helped her to navigate one of the darkest psychological periods of her life. She not only moved on from that but moved cross-country to Nashville in 2024 to begin a new adventure, although she still calls Spain home.
You’ll hear some unusual accompaniment on Everett’s mini-gig performance. She noted: “This video was recorded in the woods outside of Jackson, MS, where I’m spending some time with my family. Bugs are happy and loud!” In this video, Everett is playing her very first gigging guitar that she hadn’t played in a while, but recently took out of the case. “It’sa Sigma, a cheap series from Martin guitars,” she said. “It’san instrument I love because I can take it anywhere and be a little more careless with it.”
With a nod to the great Buddy Holly, you might dub this session as being played by Juana Everett & The Crickets. Below, Everett describes the songs she is playing in the video. You can learn more about her through her website and find her music on Bandcamp.
- Pinecrest: Pinecrest is a town in northern California. I spent a very hot summer weekend nearby a couple of years ago. I was in a little cabin with no AC, so I was sitting on the porch with my guitar, wishing for rain, which never came. But this song did.
- One Million Dollars: This song was written in my old living room in LA. Windows wide open to let one of those rare thunderstorms blow in the smell of rain. I got locked in on the riff that drives the verse, and the lyrics and melody wrote themselves. It was one of those songs that you basically just channel, but it absolutely connected to something deep and personal that I think I needed to access.
- What A Swell Party: This one is my ode to California nature: the mountains, the beaches, the desert, the trees, the coyotes, the birds. There is absolutely nothing like it.
Related