The Paranoid Style – Known Associates
Today The Paranoid Style announces plans to put out their fifth LP titled Known Associates, due for release on February 13th, 2026, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Bar/None Records.
The announcement comes on the heels of the launch of the Known Associates podcast, hosted by The Paranoid Style’s bandleader and decorated journalist Elizabeth Nelson, presented by New Pony in affiliation with Southwest Review. On the Known Associates pod, Nelson talks to other singers and writers about their lives and art. The first episode is available now and features Craig Finn from the Hold Steady. Future guests include Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers, and celebrated author Jessica Hopper.
The Known Associates album announcement is accompanied by the release of new single “It’s a Dog’s Breakfast (for LR),” a song Elizabeth Nelson wrote for Linda Ronstadt.
Here’s an excerpt from Nelson’s must-read Southwest Review essay about the enduring country queen:
“Ronstadt the interpreter is so wild. From Mike Nesmith to Roy Orbison to Elvis Costello, she always amplified and extended, making it possible to hear those things in a song that had previously been just out of reach. THAT is what it means to be an interpreter, just as Sarah Vaughan could take Cole Porter to unimaginable places. But how to reimagine the already astonishing and bawdy Stones classic ‘Tumbling Dice’ is yet another question. Maybe that’s why she changed the lyrics and made them simultaneously more shocking and yet more relatable to women everywhere.
So, I wrote this song for Linda Ronstadt, whom I love so much. It’s called ‘It’s a Dog’s Breakfast.’ That’s a Britishism for a hot mess, but it’s my favorite track I have ever recorded with the Paranoid Style, with killer additions by Lisa Walker from Wussy and Matt Douglas from the Mountain Goats. I never travel far without a little LR.”
Previous single “Tearing the Ticket” also appears on Known Associates. Released in August, “Tearing the Ticket” pays tribute to lost DC-area music legends Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan, and wrestles with the ghosts of the past amidst a flickering future. One part funeral march and one part valedictory commitment to carry on, “Tearing the Ticket” features Matt Douglas, the multi-instrumentalist from the Mountain Goats, who provides keening saxophone and flute for the Springsteen-meets-X-Ray-Spex examination of a hard, long life lived in music, which is dedicated to Bar/None’s recently deceased and terribly missed longtime label manager Mark Lipsitz.
Elizabeth Nelson’s usual Paranoid Style lineup of Peter Holsapple, William Matheny, Michael Venutolo-Mantovani, Jon Langmead and Timothy Bracy all play on Known Associates, the exhilarating follow up to their acclaimed 2024 ten-alarm panic attack The Interrogator. Along with the aforementioned Matt Douglas, Known Associates also includes a notable appearance from Eugene Edwards, a Danny Gatton disciple who is Dwight Yoakam’s lead guitarist.
A fever dream of Van Morrison-horns and Leonard Cohen sentiments, Known Associates is the LP which ratifies the steadily rising reputation of Elizabeth Nelson as one of our insurgently crucial songwriters. LIke her longtime hero Lucinda Williams, Nelson’s slow burn has run side by side with an ever-growing literary reputation, which has seen her work as an acclaimed contributor to the New York Times, the Atlantic, the New Yorker and Oxford American, as well as writing liner notes for reissues by Bob Dylan and the Replacements.
Regal, ragtag and filled with the sort of hard luck stories, busted-up epiphanies and thriftstore miracles that will be familiar to any fan of Richard Thompson, David Berman or Tom Waits, the mystics and statistics are already saying it: Known Associates is one of the greatest records of 2026, and Elizabeth Nelson is one of the best singer-songwriters in the world.
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