Tillis will be "Looking for a Feeling" in April

"Stylistically, there's so much here that's always been a part of me," she said of the dozen tracks. "It's a story I haven't told on any of my records so far. I wanted work that's as close to true and unselfconscious as possible, to provide access to my heart."

Tillis, who has enjoyed a slew of hits, last released an album on her own in 2007, "Just in Time for Christmas." She put out two albums with Lorrie Morgan in 2013 ("Dos Divas") and 2017 ("Come See Me and Come Lonely").

Tillis moved to East Nashville in 2016. Quickly finding her place in the artist community, often embracing young, indie artists who also blurred the lines between labels, Tillis was enriched musically - and circled back to those influences from her own youth. Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Carole King, Neil Young and the Allman Brothers.

Tillis started the project recording using analog tape at the Welcome to 1979 studio with guitarist Pat Buchanan, keyboardist Jim Moose Brown, steel legend Dan Dugmore and Mark Knopfler alum Glenn Whorf joined hit songwriter and producer Jimmy Ritchey for the sessions. Along with two tracks that Tillis produced with Matt Spicher, Tillis finished the project with Joe Pisapia (Guster and kd lang) at East Nashville's Middle Tree, with the notion that "feel is king and the beauty of the perfectly imperfect was our holy grail."

One of the songs is "Dolly -169." "I met Dolly as a little girl, and you could see that drive; the legends I grew up around taught me that it takes nothing less than a fire to make it in this business. Even if that fire causes a little collateral damage along the way, you know nothing's going to stop that burning to create music."

Besides her own songs, Tillis recorded material from Waylon Payne, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, Tia Sillers, Mark Selby, Bob Regan, and Matraca Berg. An exact track list was not released.