Dawnbreaker, the debut album from Daughter of Swords, aka Mountain Man's Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, is out now on Nonesuch Records (Bella Union in Europe). The album’s ten songs, inspired by a breakup that had yet to happen, lament the inevitable loss but, more importantly, outline the promise of the future. Working with Sylvan Esso's Nick Sanborn, who co-produced the record with her, Sauser-Monnig shaped what began as quiet reflections into confident compositions, crackling with country swagger and a sparkling pop warmth, preemptive odes to the next phase of life. Guests include Mountain Man's Amelia Meath and Molly Sarlé, bandleader Phil Cook, and guitarist Ryan Gustafson.

To pick up a copy of Dawnbreaker, head to your local record store, iTunes, Amazon, the Daughter of Swords shop, and the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include a download of the complete album at checkout. You can also hear the album on Spotify, Apple Music, and other digital service providers.

"'Dawnbreaker’ is about waking to the day beautifully breaking around you, and waking also to the realization that the life you've been leading is breaking with it," Sauser-Monnig says of the title song. "The version of ‘Dawnbreaker’ that is on the record was one of the first takes recorded of the whole record. It wasn't really intended to be the final version of the song, but as the rest of the record came together, we realized that the rawness of that first take embodied the emotional quality that the record wanted to end on."

About the song "Shining Woman," Sauser-Monnig says: "The vision of this powerful person alone on a bike trip not asking permission from anyone appeared out of nowhere, and took up residence in my mind," she says of the video. "Like my subconscious staging an intervention and reminding me that I haven't died, there are no rules, and that I have the power to make different choices for myself."

The track "Fields of Gold" is "a car song," she says. "It's about that beautiful sense of possibility you get when you're driving long distances and the facts of your life lift away enough to let you imagine parallel versions of your life playing out in all the unknown places you're moving through."

"'Gem' is about that omnipotent feeling you get when you're falling in love and the rules haven't been made yet," Sauser-Monnig says of another album track. "When everything feels possible and the world looks beautiful and shining, and at the same time, you and the world are kind of dented from human contact. This was the first song Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) and I produced together. It was so much fun. To me, with its messed up little drum beat and unrelenting optimism, it feels like a romance novel in song form being played out of a tiny, broken cassette player."

Daughter of Swords will open for Andy Jenkins in Richmond on July 12, The Mountain Goats in New Haven on August 9, and Sylvan Esso at the Beacon Theater in New York in November, and will perform a set at Hopscotch Music Festival in September. For all the latest, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.