S.G. Goodman Further Explores the 'Complexity' of Her Kentucky Home on Deluxe Album “(Re)Planting by the Signs” (Exclusive)

Chris BarillaFri, May 29, 2026 at 10:30 PM UTC

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S.G. Goodman
Credit: Ryan Hartley -

S.G. Goodman's deluxe album, (Re)Planting by the Signs, adds five new tracks, including a collaborative reworking of its title track featuring Tyler Childers and Senora May

The project explores Southern identity and traditions while challenging stereotypes about Kentucky and Appalachia

Goodman is donating part of the album's proceeds to her local NPR station in Murray, Ky.

The notion of Planting by the Signs has been an integral part of S.G. Goodman's life since the beginning.

A daughter of Southwestern Kentucky's bottomlands with agrarian roots, Goodman tells PEOPLE in the wake of the release of her 2026 deluxe album, (Re)Planting by the Signs, that she was "compelled to not put it down" after releasing the original project in 2025. Instead, the 37-year-old songwriter proverbially brought in a fresh harvest with five new tracks to expand upon the sonic universe she first established with her fourth studio album.

"It has taken me a bit off guard," Goodman tells PEOPLE of returning to Planting by the Signs. "I guess I haven't been able to let it go."

Out now, the project adds five numbers to the original record, including an introductory track taken from Goodman's live shows, Dan Reeder's version of "I'm in Love," a psychedelic reinterpretation of the Butthole Surfers classic "Pepper" and a reimagined version of the album's title track featuring Tyler Childers and his wife, Senora May, their first publicly shared duet.

'(Re)Planting By The Signs' album cover
Credit: Slough Water Records / Thirty Tigers

The concept of releasing a deluxe album is often a tactical decision to keep an artist's name in the conversation and a de facto outlet for bonus material. However, in S.G.'s case, that couldn't be farther from the truth. This expanded release represents something much deeper: an ongoing exploration of Southern identity, inherited traditions and the nuances often lost in how places like Kentucky and greater Appalachia are generally viewed by outsiders.

"I feel like what is missed from everything to how Southerners and people from my region are portrayed politically from how we are as things as simple as our taste or preferences or culture, one word really comes to mind, which is complexity," Goodman exclaims. "It's really easy just to look at a picture of a map about people's voting preferences and just assume that our beliefs only go that far... If you look into the complexity of it, we're a gerrymandered region. So we're a disenfranchised region."

She doubles down by adding, "I do my best to really showcase the complexity of where I'm from and the people that are there. The more I can maybe spark curiosity to push back against those stereotypes and also the preconceived notions about myself and the people that are my neighbors."

The original Planting by the Signs drew inspiration from the long-held agricultural practice of planting crops according to lunar cycles, a concept Goodman grew up around in Hickman, Ky., on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. For fellow Kentuckians Childers and May, that ideology was also extremely resonant.

S.G. Goodman
Credit: Ryan Hartley

"A long time before, on Planting by the Signs, the original peeps, I use a lot of voiceovers from people in the South who actually have experience or believe in planting by the signs," she explains. Through her friendship with May, Goodman says she learned that their families both identified with that concept.

"I discovered that her dad actually, who's a farmer too, she was raised by the belief system," Goodman says of May. "So I've always known that that was a belief system that she was familiar with and it was special for her."

That personal connection, combined with Goodman's longtime admiration for both May and Childers, made the notion of collaborating on a rework of the album's title track wholly organic.

" 'Planting by the Signs,' the song is, in its essence, a love song," Goodman says. "And so I've always just envisioned a couple singing it, and who better else than Tyler and Senora?"

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Goodman notes that she approached the pair carefully, understanding the significance of the moment given that the duet marks the first officially released recording from the married duo. "I wrote them both and said 'No pressure,' " the singer recalls. "I don't really know why they haven't recorded together until now, but it wouldn't have hurt my feelings if they would've said no."

Another standout element from (Re)Planting by the Signs is Goodman's reimagining of the 1996 classic Butthole Surfers hit "Pepper," which she considers a staple of recent live performances, including her rousing Stagecoach 2026 set.

"I don't really have any desire to just be a karaoke artist," she says of her approach regarding cover songs and particular wishes to reconstruct the brooding, melodic elements of the song with a more prominent Southern twang. "I think it's a picture of how their version, after it flows through me, what is left over."

Throughout the entirety of the record's new and previously-released tracks, Goodman constantly returns to themes of community, nature and addressing ever-prevalent disconnection. As such, she has opted to donate a portion of the album's proceeds to her local NPR station, WKMS, in Murray, Ky. To the artist, these are core life tenets she feels increasingly urgent to be discussed in modern life.

"It's always going to be a timely subject," Goodman says. "There's these barriers between us and the natural rhythms of what nature shows us."

S.G. Goodman
Credit: Ryan Hartley

And despite a steadily growing profile, including an upcoming performance at Kentucky's own Laurel Cove Music Festival, Goodman says she remains wholly committed to allowing her music to develop organically, rather than chasing industry expectations.

"It took me a really long time to write Planting by the Signs,” she admits. "I had to make a decision, and it's what's more important? Art or commerce?"

The singer adds, "What I've been able to do with this slow growth is really develop a community through my music, and in my opinion, community is what sustains a person."

Even as she looks ahead to future projects and continues recording new material, Goodman says she doesn't necessarily see a definitive ending point for Planting by the Signs, or (Re)Planting by the Signs, for that matter, especially in an era where music can continuously find new audiences online.

"There's this amazing sense of the unknown when it comes to putting out music right now," she says. "You can't ever say something is done anymore."

Both Planting by the Signs and (Re)Planting by the Signs are available on all major streaming platforms now.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”