On her new album, Tomberlin cultivates a community garden

Themes of planting roots and relating to the natural world pop up throughout the album

By Elle Mannion
NPR
Apr 27, 2022

Excerpt:

Sarah Beth Tomberlin, the daughter of a Baptist pastor father and a musical mother, grew up gardening with her parents in the land of tobacco farms. The singer-songwriter, who releases music as Tomberlin, says she didn’t really enjoy pulling weeds in the hot sun as a kid; now, she lives in New York where she doesn’t have a physical garden – but it’s clear the experience stuck with her. Gardening appears as a metaphor for personal growth on her new spectacular sophomore album, i don’t know who needs to hear this…

Themes of planting roots and relating to the natural world pop up throughout the album, but they’re especially apparent on “sunstruck,” a standout track that Tomberlin has said is about “the growth that can take place if you choose to tend to your own life’s garden.” “The work’s not always fun,” she sings, “but it’s better than staring at the weed and the mud.”

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