Welcome to Alison's music updates
First edition! It's December. I'm playing a show.
If you’re reading this in an email, that means that you either signed up for updates on my music happenings, or I signed you up against your will 😈
What a crazy year it has been
Two months after moving to Brooklyn, I performed an original acoustic song at an open mic in Williamsburg in front of other human beings for the very first time and my whole body shook. In the calendar year since then I have attended many more mics, written many more songs, recorded & released one of those songs into the world, made a ton of lovely new musician friends, and booked nine gigs, one of which was my first show with Sofar Sounds. The shaking has mostly subsided.
(Aforementioned released song)
Later this month I’ll be recording another one of my songs at a studio in NJ. It’s a song that many folks have heard this year at various shows (hint: rhymes with bad pants) and is always a crowd favorite. I’m really excited for it to exist and for everyone to have it in their pockets. Hopefully the recording of many more songs will follow!
So, ah, I’m not quite sure how it happened but there a lot going on. And you shouldn’t need to be scrolling on the black hole that is Inst@gram to hear about it. Going forward I’ll use this space to update you all about upcoming shows, song and/or album releases, performance clips, and anything else that I think you might find interesting. That may or may not include a little “what I am listening to” section at the end of each update, because of course I will take any opportunity to share that in any capacity.
Last show of the year & maybe you can come
Remember earlier when I said that I booked nine gigs over the past year? Well, the last of those nine gigs has yet to happen…
When: Wednesday, December 27th
Where: Pianos on the Lower East Side in NYC
What: Me! With my guitar! Playing a whole 45 minutes of my music for you! Followed or proceeded by Ezra Glatt who will be doing the same!
I am such a big fan of Ezra’s. His latest record came out the beginning of this year and is just so beautiful. To me his sound feels adjacent to Nick Drake and Sufjan Stevens in an instantly familiar way, but of course he has so much of his own special thing going on. I can’t believe he agreed to do this show with me, I feel so lucky.
Bring your friends. Bring your family. Bring anyone you know who is home for the holidays between Christmas & NYE — they’re probably bored and looking for something to do and you’d be helping them by telling them about this show.
(Poster by sister Haley of course)
I think that’s it for now!
To all of my friends & family reading this, I am really so grateful for your support over this whirlwind of a year, for helping me feel confident enough to pursue this new thing that I enjoy very much.
To everyone & anyone, I’m glad you’re here. Talk soon :)
xoxo Alison
What I’m listening to
Lots of Bombay Bicycle Club recently, older stuff though. I still need to listen to their new album.
Georgia Parker put a short song clip on instagram and it pops up in my head most days now. I just love her voice and songwriting and can’t wait for more of her music to come out.
Sooo much Fenne Lily. For me this is such a good example of when you hear something at one point in your life and you’re like “eh it’s fine” and then you come across it again a couple years later and it clicks and suddenly you’re obsessed.