Singer-songwriter and Baroque violinist Rebecca Scout Nelson releases sophomore album, Wild Iris, on Il Pirata Records (Nov 6)
(September 2026) — Rebecca Scout Nelson’s upcoming album, Wild Iris, on Il Pirata Records, expands her distinctive musical world, building on the folk-Baroque sound of her acclaimed debut, Do Not Lament, with a seamless combination of Baroque and contemporary indie folk. The result is a perfectly natural and harmonious whole that spans several centuries of inspiration and instrumental technique, including a dash of bluegrass and radio hits from Nelson’s childhood (Nov 6). Most of the material on the album was written and/or arranged by Nelson herself, the exception being two songs written by album cellist and vocalist Cullen Coty O’Neil, who also has two arranger credits; one lyric adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge; a cover of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’s classic Americana song “Look at Miss Ohio”; and works by Handel and Telemann in Nelson’s arrangements. Two singles will be released leading up to the album: “Shine” (Sep 25) and “Sweet Persephone” (Oct 23).
See a video of a live session at Tiny Panther Studio that includes “Shine” and “Home” from the new album – as well as “Do Not Lament”
Nelson’s debut album, 2023’s Do Not Lament, told a powerfully personal story of love, loss, and grief following the tragic death of her younger sister. Interspersing original songs and instrumentals with her own arrangements of music by Purcell and others, the album embraced a range of musical styles to trace a narrative arc following grief’s slow trajectory from despair to hope. The subject of Wild Iris might be seen as taking up the story where Do Not Lament left off. Nelson comments:
“There was a magical moment when I was working on the album when I realized the theme that tied it all together. I had been working on a cantata called Eurydice and during that project I meditated a lot on the afterlife. Meanwhile, I’d also really come to love this poem called ‘The Wild Iris’ by Louise Glück. In general, the idea of thresholds or doors that we need to step through to enter new phases of the unknown was something I was trying to grapple with and develop more of a bravery for. Compared to my first album that really allows pain and joy to intersect, I feel that this album is really a celebration of death, and it probably all comes back to the loss of my sister. This is the permission I’ve given myself to write her afterlife story as one of the most epic and beautiful tales yet to be told, because all we want to feel at the end of the day is that the people we’ve lost are OK or even better than OK – they are somewhere so amazing that we cannot even understand. Do Not Lament was for the living – those of us who stayed behind. Wild Iris is what the dead wish we knew.”
In live performance, Nelson can be seen this fall joining two ensembles she collaborates with regularly. Boston’s Sarasa Ensemble performs programs that include a world premiere by Nelson in Brattleboro, VT (Sep 18), Cambridge, MA (Sep 19), and Lexington, MA (Sep 20). The Relic period instrument chamber orchestra, which includes Nelson and album cellist Cullen Coty O’Neil, has performances scheduled in Cleveland (Sep 30), Kalamazoo, MI (Oct 2), New York City (Oct 4), and Milwaukee (Oct 24).
About Il Pirata Records
Il Pirata Records is a label less interested in scale than in intention. Richie Hawley founded it not as an entrepreneurial detour, but as a creative extension — a laboratory for artistic projects that might otherwise struggle to exist within traditional frameworks. For nearly two decades, he occupied one of the most exacting seats in orchestral life, serving as principal clarinetist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It was here that Hawley developed not only a reputation for tonal nuance but an unusually acute sensitivity to how performances translate into recordings, how microphones, spaces, and production choices shape perception.
The Il Pirata Records catalog reveals a fascination with projects that blur boundaries — between eras, genres, and listening cultures. Each release asks a quiet but pointed question: how might recorded music feel more immediate, more tactile, more alive?
Hawley operates simultaneously as curator, producer, collaborator, and — perhaps most crucially — listener. He is acutely aware of the paradoxes embedded in classical recording culture: the pursuit of perfection that can sterilize vitality, the reverence for tradition that can discourage invention. Il Pirata Records privileges authenticity over flawlessness, personality over polish, artistic identity over institutional conformity.
Rebecca Scout Nelson: Wild Iris
Release date: Nov 6, 2026
Format: Digital and vinyl LP
Label: Il Pirata Records
Track listing:
01 Eternal Source of Light Divine
02 Wild Iris I
03 Shine
04 Home
05 Soft as the Moon
06 Sonata à 3
07 Wild Iris II
08 Christabel
09 Darkness
10 Sweet Persephone
11 Fantasy
12 Look at Miss Ohio
13 Rooster
14 Wild Iris III
Credits:
All tracks written and arranged by: Rebecca Scout Nelson except:
“Eternal Source of Light Divine” by George Frideric Handel, arr. Rebecca Scout Nelson
“Home” by Rebecca Scout Nelson, arr. Cullen Coty O’Neil
“Christabel” written and arranged by Cullen Coty O’Neil, lyrics adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Fantasy” by Georg Philipp Telemann, arr. Rebecca Scout Nelson
“Look at Miss Ohio” by G. Welch / D. Rawlings, arr. Rebecca Scout Nelson
“Rooster” by Cullen Coty O’Neil, arr. Rebecca Scout Nelson
Rebecca Scout Nelson, vocals and violin
Rafa Prendergast, violin
Nelli Jabotinsky, violin
Manami Mizumoto, violin and viola
Matt Zucker, viola da gamba
Philip Nelson, double bass
Nico Abondolo, double bass
Cameron Welke, guitar, baroque guitar, lute, theorbo, electric guitar
Nicola Canzano, organ
Cullen Coty O’Neil, cello and vocals
Richie Hawley, vocals, 2nd organ, percussion