"We're really excited," began Allie Colleen, "We spoke to some people last week who have seen a couple of shows at the winery who said they were really good shows and they were acoustic shows. So, I'm really interested to soundcheck the band because soundcheck is my favorite thing; it sounds so whimsical and maybe a little silly but it's like the first time you get to meet somebody. It's the first time you get to sing in a room and nobody is in there and your show is gonna be so different later hopefully; hopefully people show up and there are a lot of people in the room and it's gonna be a little different. There is something really cool about that for me. I had a little tiny stage in this sports barn that we had on my family's property and that's where I spent all of my time, alone on this little stage that was about an inch off of the ground but it was a stage, it wasn't floor level and I thought that was the coolest thing and I think something like that has made me fall in love with big empty rooms to sing in."
As stated on her website, "Allie Colleen is no stranger to the music industry" and nothing could be more true. The aforementioned, "Little tiny stage" has given way to much larger ones, and fresh off tour with a current Country hot commodity, will hit the road supporting the February 21 release of, "Sincerely, Rolling Stone" and on March 2, courtesy of a newly formed venture between The New Hope Winery and Deko Entertainment, she will be performing at the Pennsylvania vineyard along with Deko artist Southpaw.
"We just got off the road with Jelly Roll," continued Colleen. "We put out our album in 2021, we've put out six or seven projects since then but they've all been singles. We have been traveling with all of our music the last couple of years. Right now, we're playing that and all of our singles and we've already added the new music into our setlist; we have an EP coming out on February 21 just the week before this run. So, we'll be playing the five new songs from that album as well as stuff from the "Stones" album and the singles that we've put out since."
The decision to put out an EP vs. a full-length work is either very easy or not so much and that depends strictly on the artist's preferences but Allie definitely has a different take on releasing her music and how she views what she writes.
"You could do a 13 song album back in the day for 30 grand, I can put out a single today for 10, it's so crazy," she laughed. "I'm not laughing yet but I think there is gonna be a day where I can look back and say, "Hey, those times (Laughs)" but not yet for me. I don't write that way. I'm not short of songs. I don't put out EPs or singles because I only have one or five songs at a time; I put out projects. So, if we're only gonna focus on "Halos & Horns" sonically which is a single from the past, then I'll focus a whole season on promoting and doing this thing with "Halos & Horns" and this type of sonic song. So, for me to jump to a five song EP from that is because these are the five songs that I've carried with me perhaps over the last five years that have never gotten to make a single or an album. So, these are five really intentional songs that I actually don't find that people are maybe going to relate to as much as they would my other music. These are five songs that Allie really wrote about herself and they're usually the ones that don't make it out there because you try and be relatable and you make songs for your audience. I've always tried to be a songwriter and an artist who is writing narratives for people as opposed to just constantly putting out projects that tell you something about me. So, just to say, we've kind of flipped the script on this one a little bit and we wanted to put out such a sincere personal project and that's what it sincerely is and that is the intent of it. This is just the five songs that we've had for the last little while that we didn't know what to do with and that's why we put them together in a group and I'm really, really excited about it. The oldest one is from 2021 and the other four we've probably written in the last year or two."
Writing about oneself and making it personal, not only opens the artist to vulnerability but runs a risk of alienating some of their fan base because it is something "Different" and not what their faithful are used to consuming. Allie realizes this and she totally understands that people may not be as receptive in some ways; something that makes her a bit anxious but then again, she has her ways of catering to all of her audiences.
"There are probably much more than two when it comes to types of listeners but when I think about my followers and my fan base and the people who are consuming my music, it's always one of the two. It's always someone who just knows all of the songs and doesn't know a single thing about Allie; I love that side, I lean a little more towards that side and there is the other side that's really personally invested in Allie and worked pretty hard to at least consume whatever personal stuff I'm willing to share on a social basis. So, I think that this project, I hope, I hope that the listener takes every single song and just runs with it and just paints it with their own world, their own colors, their own things. I'm hoping that these songs are relatable enough to where they are able to do that. I don't know if someone from Idaho is gonna listen to "Oklahoma Mountains" and feel any type of way about it because I don't know if they're gonna understand that Oklahoma has no mountains at all, it's just flat; you know what I mean? The whole point of "Oklahoma Mountains" is, "They say there ain't no mountains in Oklahoma; then why have I always had to climb?" Right? I think that's something that everybody can relate to, it's just the struggle of your own life. So, I think that this project can be taken either way. I get a little insecure when they start trying to connect dots for me because you are right, I don't have any control over that and I don't know what narrative they're gonna put on me and why I wrote the song and who it's about and those kinds of things but that's just something that you're gonna have to let go if you're gonna share your music with as many people as you can."
"When I try to make the mood a little bit lighter; for me that's a sonic placement. All of our fun more poppy stuff or whatever the case might be is always gonna be a sonic thing for me. I'm a really big sensory person and so, when you want to look at Allie's more fun stuff; that's when you're gonna get more of the track based like Pop-Country things because I think that's just a vibe and I love to do that and the personal things, I feel like it's just a constant balance between saying something the way Allie would say it; I think sometimes people forget; yes, I would totally love to be a rock star; you know what I mean? That's part of the end goal but I started making music when I was a kid to learn how to communicate better for myself. That's something that's never going to go away from my music so it's always a fine line between, how would Allie say this and also how is this gonna be received by everybody because it's also not so much about me anymore. I enjoy that, I really do. I think it's a fun challenge and it's also a little easier to write in a different way because it takes the pressure off of the personal part and I do like that sometimes. I felt like, as a child, I had really, really big emotions that I won't say kids my age weren't experiencing but I wasn't around kids my age until I was probably about six,seven, eight, nine or ten years old. I started writing songs when I was eight years old and I just felt like I was received better. I wasn't a confident communicator as a kid and I wasn't confident about sharing my emotions, I wasn't confident about communicating in general with people but I could sing to anybody and I was really comfortable in that place. So, I'd write songs and share them with my family or I'd write songs and share them with my friends and that was kind of my way of, hey, these are my really big emotions that I have right now that I don't really know how to talk to you about. That's something I still feel today, even today I don't feel like I communicate that well with others sometimes but I can sing to anybody and I feel like I can relate to anybody when I can sing to them."
Sirius XM radio has a station called, "Outlaw Country" on which less than; shall we say, "Mainstream" Country music artists are played. Allie quickly admits that this is where she considers home, even though she considers herself a Country music artist but perhaps not in the truest sense.
"The airplay world is weird for us in the sense of, we don't have an active radio single but we do have a lot of stations that pick us up and we have a lot of curated podcast and curated playlists through like Spotify , Apple iTunes and Amazon and those kinds of things where we land more on the "Outlaw" route. So, to me, the best way that I can explain it is, Kelsea Ballerini is a Country artist, I'm a Country artist but I don't find that we end up on the same playlists. So, I think it's true that Outlaw Country may not represent Country to some people if they're expecting more like the Top 10 kind of radio stuff where the Outlaw stuff is more like me and Hardy and more of that kind of Pop Punk world of Country music."
When she takes the stage is when she comes to life but what happens before and after her shows also gives her personal fulfillment.
"It's my band and me and as I say, we're pretty loud. We have a pretty heavy show I think in terms of country; if someone comes to hear us who thinks we do Country music and they're not familiar with my music, they're always a little surprised that it leans more on the Rock side. I have a heck of a potty mouth to be honest but that's in my songs so if you've heard my music then you would know. So, I get to travel with my band and I love my band. I have a drummer, a bass player, a guitar player and myself on stage and then I travel with a front of house girl and my little brother comes and helps us out and it's just a big family that's really cool. We'll all be there and then we'll all hang around after and it's just usually a really good time and we're all excited. My manager Bev and I sell all of our merch together. So, I'll be there as long as anyone else is there. I love to sell and sign anything to anyone who comes. We take pictures, we do all of that kind of stuff and we also have pre-show opportunity meet and greets available on our website and those are really personal. I sing songs. do Q&As and those kinds of things; that's more personal than the merch experience but either way, we'll definitely shake hands. We really try and make it worth it, we really try to make it an experience and also that really helps me out because almost always, when someone buys a VIP experience, they come to another show somewhere down the road."
Meeting fans is something Allie really does enjoy and her reasons have ways of taking her back to those days of the "Little tiny stage."
"My favorite part? The kids that I get to meet. I love all of my meetings with all of my people at all ages. I really actually enjoy meeting people. As much as I find people to be really amusing, I love the moments with the kids.The moment where the 13 year old is gonna pull you aside and say, "Hey, I also sing" and I know what I'm supposed to do; I know I'm supposed to give them the opportunity to sing to me or something and it's always kind of weird but it's the coolest little moment because I remember being on that side. I remember being the really young girl who waited in line to shake a hand and walk out of the room and that was enough for me, I thought it was the coolest thing. So, that's also why I really enjoy meeting people, I want to make them feel seen. I don't want them to feel like they were just a hand that was shook and sent out of a room. I drew a little horseshoe on my face for years and now I finally have a little horseshoe tattoo under my eye but for years it was eyeliner. So now, little girls come through my merch line and they all leave with a little eyeliner horseshoe tattoo on their face and it's the coolest little thing and it's just like a fun little community to make these little girls feel like bosses; ya' know?"
Making them "Feel seen" is beyond admirable and a trait that more performers should acquire or use to refresh their memory of life before stardom, especially when encountering those who pay their ticket price. After the March 2 gig at The New Hope Winery, Allie will return home because she has somewhat of a residency on Broadway, "Just like anybody else" in Nashville and it's here where she can be comfortable.
"I have a regular gig in Nashville on Tuesdays, if anyone ever comes into town they'll see me doing my cover set downtown just like anybody else. I play at Friends In Low Places on the rooftop on Tuesdays from 12 p.m. till 3 p.m., it's really intimate, it's really casual. So, I'm still doing the Broadway thing for my tenth year in this town."
To discover more about Allie Colleen or purchase tickets to the March 2 show, please visit https://www.alliecolleenmusic.com/
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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