Nikki Lane has been on a Nashville tear this week, culminating with a pop-up appearance Wednesday night during Lukas Nelson’s headlining show at Chief’s, during which she sang “Born Runnin’ Outta Time,” off Nelson’s upcoming album American Romance. By show’s end, Lane was once again onstage, harmonizing on another song — and sparking up what appeared to be a tightly rolled joint.

Fostering a give-no-fucks attitude has always been part of Lane’s appeal, but last year she let her guard down to show the woman inside when announcing the death of her father, Keith Frady. That heavy loss runs through Lane’s mournful new song, “Woodruff City Limit,” an origin-story piano ballad produced by Butch Walker. “I was born in a mill town in 1983/same as those with my name that came before me,” she sings, “learned about pain before I learned to speak/watched my mama cry until we’d sleep.”

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Lane released the song as a standalone single, and it marks her first solo release since 2022. It’s also deeply personal: “Say goodbye to my father, I was a good southern prodigal daughter/trying to forget everything he taught us/except the old Gibson he bought for me,” Lane sings at another point.

The title refers to her hometown of Woodruff, South Carolina. She’s set to perform a free concert there this weekend, June 7, before hitting the road on her own tour and dates on Chris Stapleton’s All-American Road Show Tour and with Sierra Ferrell. Lane recently collaborated with Ferrell on a cover of Jo Dee Messina’s “A Lesson in Leavin’” for Amazon Music.