The Universal Bubba
October 6, 2026
Americana / Folk / Singer-Songwriter
"I want to write songs that prove the old weird America didn't go anywhere." Willi Carlisle's new double album The Universal Bubba - produced by Tyler Childers - is 17 songs about ditch diggers, horse girls, existential crises at Chinese buffets, and the universal bubba who can fix anything. Carlisle reaches new heights with the added accelerant of first time producer Tyler Childers. In an all-time DIY effort, Childers and his band convened to a makeshift home studio nestled in the Bywater District of New Orleans for two weeks to cut 17 tracks that expand Carlisle’s sonic scrapbook and capture the off-kilter characters living in his songs. “I think this one goes to outer space,” says Carlisle. “This is the widest range of influences that I’ve ever had. It touches on funk, it touches on Americana, Cajun, oldtime, and experimental music.” With Childers’ band behind him, Carlisle embraced the freedom to wander across genres both familiar and new, testing out instrumentation and toying with the surreality of traditions being turned on their head.
