Sara Bareilles Delivers New Album 'Good Grief'

08-28-2026

(Epic) GRAMMY-winning, Tony and Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter and Epic Records recording artist Sara Bareilles today unveils her new album, Good Grief-listen/share here.

Good Grief marks Bareilles' seventh studio album and her first since 2019's Grammy-winning Amidst the Chaos, opening a new chapter to her 20-year career. True to its title, the 14-track collection is a reckoning with loss, yet even its darkest moments are threaded with an insistent, luminous pull toward hope.

"This whole collection of songs felt like transmissions rather than a deliberate attempt to make sense of the world," says Bareilles. "My deepest hope is that Good Grief provides some kind of comfort or catharsis."

Bareilles previously shared the album's first two singles, "Home" and "Still Crying," earlier this summer. "Home," a track inspired by a conversation between Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper on Cooper's podcast about grief and loss, was praised by SPIN as "a meditation on loss, connection and resilience that sets the tone for what Bareilles describes as her most personal work in years." "Still Crying," co-written with Aaron Dessner, earned acclaim from Forbes, Playbill, and more.

Good Grief marks Bareilles' seventh studio album and her first since 2019's Grammy-winning Amidst the Chaos, opening a new chapter in her 20-year career. The 14-track, self-produced collection is a reckoning with loss-spanning intimate tributes to lost friends, defiant anthems for women's rights, and unexpected moments of lightness-threaded throughout with hope. Most of the album was recorded over six days at Dreamland Recording Studios in Woodstock, NY, with longtime collaborators drummer Charley Drayton, guitarist Butterfly Boucher, keyboardist Misty Boyce, bassist Solomon Dorsey, multi-instrumentalist Rob Moose and co-producer, recording engineer and mixer Jonathan Low, followed by later sessions with co-producer Aaron Dessner at his Long Pond Studios in the Hudson Valley, aided by engineer/mixer Bella Blasko. The album also features contributions from Brandi Carlile, Andrea Gibson, Ingrid Michaelson, Joe Tippett and Megan Falley.

The making of the album was captured in the documentary, Sara Bareilles: Good Grief, which will receive a nationwide release this fall. The film will open in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and over 35 other cities across the US on September 2. Directed by Josh Alexander and produced by Daniel J. Chalfen, the film offers an intimate, unfiltered portrait of Bareilles' return to the recording studio with close friends for the first time in seven years-a cinematic document of her creative process that becomes a profoundly personal, ultimately hopeful meditation on loss, grief and the power of music to heal. A masterclass in creativity, community and vulnerability, the documentary serves as a reminder of music's extraordinary power to connect us to ourselves and to each other.

Bareilles will also make her long-awaited return to the stage this fall for her deeply personal Good Grief Tour, promoted by Live Nation. Kicking off September 9 in Boston, this trek marks a triumphant new chapter for an artist at the height of her storytelling powers. The shows promise a blend of raw, vulnerable new tracks from Good Grief, alongside songs that have defined her career and connection to fans. Bringing her signature wit and authenticity to iconic theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and more, Bareilles hopes to invite fans into an intimate space of connection, truth-telling, joy and some good grief.

The album, tour and documentary add to a landmark year for Bareilles. Her song "Salt Then Sour Then Sweet," co-written with Brandi Carlile and the late poet and activist Andrea Gibson, appears in the Peabody Award-winning documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, on which Bareilles also serves as executive producer. The song was shortlisted for Best Original Song and the film for Best Documentary at the 98th Academy Awards. The track also appears on Good Grief.

Bareilles is an award-winning singer, songwriter, actor, producer, activist, and New York Times best-selling author. A two-time GRAMMY winner, she has also earned three Tony and three Primetime Emmy nominations. Bareilles has sold more than three million albums and 15 million singles in the U.S., with over 3.5 billion streams worldwide. On Broadway, Bareilles composed the music and lyrics for Waitress, later stepping into the lead role both on Broadway and the West End. Her additional theater credits include her Tony-nominated performance as the Baker's Wife in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods and a song on the Tony Award-nominated score for SpongeBob SquarePants. Her on-screen work includes an Emmy Award-nominated performance as Mary Magdalene in NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live! and her role as Dawn Solano in the Emmy-nominated musical comedy series Girls5eva. She is also currently developing a musical theater adaptation of Meg Wolitzer's bestselling novel The Interestings.