This August, Kam Franklin will finally release her full-length debut solo album, Land of the Neon Sun. The project has generated excitement, impatience, and a few questions. First, a note of reassurance: Abandoning The Suffers isn’t on the table. The acclaimed Gulf Coast soul band, which Franklin has fronted since 2011, is finishing their fourth album and hopes to release it later this year.

Land of the Neon Sun, however, is exclusively Franklin’s—her vision and her name. “It’s been 15 years of making records with my friends. I’ve had EPs galore, more singles than I can think of, and been featured on dozens of other people’s records,” she says. “But this is my first official solo album.” 

The independent milestone holds special significance for Franklin, who has built a successful career as a trusted collaborator. Though most closely associated with The Suffers, her work with other artists jumps genres and formats. She contributed vocals to the 2026 Grammy-winning Clifton Chenier project, A Tribute to the King of Zydeco, a compilation also featuring The Rolling Stones, Taj Mahal, Charley Crockett, Lucinda Williams, and other heavy hitters. In 2024, Franklin’s Bayou City Comeback Chorus, a multi-genre avant-garde choral project, packed the Wortham Center. In the years before, she performed with the Houston Symphony, released a single with five-time Grammy Award-winning group La Mafia in 2018, and has played with everyone from Jon Batiste and Questlove to Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, and Allison Russell. 

But Land of the Neon Sun formally introduces Franklin, the solo Americana artist. For her, the step toward more stripped-down instrumentation and lyrical storytelling had to resonate clearly not just with audiences but with the entertainment industry. 

When Franklin approached outlaw country torchbearer Margo Price about co-producing the album, she knew that choice could send a message. “I want people to know I’m fucking serious about going in this other direction, which is somewhere between folk, Americana, and soul,” Franklin says.

Price agreed, and together, they helmed the studio boards for a project that further solidifies Franklin’s role as a musical and political provocateur. A longtime proponent of more inclusive spaces for Black, queer, non-binary, and femme artists, Franklin has drawn attention to issues ranging from food deserts to gerrymandering in and outside of her music. 

A recent preview of the album shows it’s an undeniable triumph. Sonically and thematically, the dozen songs on Land of the Neon Sun cover substantial ground. Protest songs follow love songs, while joy, sadness, and hope all take turns on the mic. Acoustic guitar, which Franklin learned to play over the last few years, figures prominently in many tracks, but so do synths and moody electric guitars. “That’s my favorite part about it all. You can’t tell what it is,” she says. “Is it country? Is it blues? Funk, jazz, or soul? Is it classic? Is it modern?”

Franklin is interested in cultivating conversations. She needles the comfortable and subverts expectations in songs, live performances, and cultural op-eds she publishes in outlets like Vice or as a private citizen commenting on social platforms. On Land of the Neon Sun, Franklin often relies on vividly personal—even mundane—details. It’s a strategy designed to draw people into vignettes that might otherwise feel too foreign to their own experiences. “I don’t assume that my album will be mass-consumed, but for people who don’t look like me, who aren’t from where I’m from but are interested in what I have to say, I try not to exclude so much,” Franklin says.

Other times, Franklin is most interested in capturing and facilitating a good time. The album’s first single—a psychedelic rock romp called “I Got a Lover”—dropped on June 11. Written by Franklin alone, the song invokes New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint with its trippy take on roots music, opting for layered vocal loops and distorted guitar. Dizzy and often downright euphoric, “I Got a Lover” is a sublime album tease. “I call that one an ode to the young, drunk, and horny,” Franklin says with a laugh. If anyone can take folk music to the club, it’s her.

As Franklin readies for Land of the Neon Sun’s release later this summer, she can’t help but reflect on the past five years: saving as much of her own money as she could, picking up gigs, making plans, taking risks. She launched a successful Kickstarter campaign last summer to help fund the remaining album costs. A year later, she put the final touches on the arrangements for her vinyl pressings at Houston’s 610 Record Manufacturing, a place she champions for making vinyl more accessible to indie artists like her, who often use DIY methods such as YouTube and the public library. “Really, you can learn just about everything you need to learn there,” she says.

Franklin speaks from experience. She is one of the best vocalists and interdisciplinary artists to ever come out of Houston, and also one of the scrappiest. Writing, singing, playing, and producing matter, but her always-deepening understanding of broader industry mechanics comes from her own trials, research, and listening to musicians she’s met along the way. Those traits aren’t confined to music. Several months ago, she encouraged me to try repairing the drywall in our home myself—she and her partner had just completed their own extensive drywall project thanks to the guidance of a Canadian carpenter on YouTube (of course, she sent me the link).

I told Franklin that Land of the Neon Sun might be the most comprehensive snapshot of Houston’s sound I’ve ever heard: soulful, a little country, danceable, witty. She laughed, delighted with the idea that she captured the chaos of this place. Then I asked whether she thinks she sounds like her hometown. “I know I sound like Houston. There’s no question there,” she says. “I sound like I got to do what I wanted to do. I sound very polished, but dirty at the same time.”

Polished but dirty: Slap that on bumper stickers for the slabs.

JUNE MUSIC NOTES

Houston music happenings you should know:

• The Save the Locals music series kicked off June 4 at Menard Park at 27th and Seawall in Galveston with Tremoloco. Produced by La Izquierda Records, the free and family-friendly shows run every Thursday evening in June and July. This year’s lineup includes Blossom Aloe, The Mighty Orq, Gabe Wootton, Dem Roots Music, Galvezton, and more.
• Sara Van Buskirk is raising funds for her anticipated sophomore album.
• Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge has launched Two Steppin’ Tuesdays, featuring different honky-tonk sounds every week.
• Discovery Green’s Sunday Concert Series will feature an impressively eclectic lineup of Houston musicians now through July 19. Performers include Charlie y La Tribu Cubana, playing traditional Cuban music; Matthew Hartnett & the Gumbo Jam, with their takes on Gulf Coast jazz and hip-hop; and The Pew’s rollicking gypsy jazz. Free and family-friendly, the shows start at 5pm.
• Houston artists, including Kam Franklin and Nick Gaitan, are encouraging the city to participate in Make Music Houston—a free, worldwide celebration––on Sunday, June 21. Visit makemusicday.org/houston to register and learn more.
• Living legend Scarface will be the special guest at Rick Ross’s Port of Miami 20th Anniversary Live Orchestra Experience, slated for June 26 at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.