Alison Self

Alison was born and raised in Petersburg, VA in a working class family that was pretty void of musical talent. Alison isn't aware of any musicians in her family, she thinks her grandpa looked at a guitar once, but swears that she has been singing since she learned to talk and started playing publicly around 2006. Alison plays a mix of honky tonk and old time country on the guitar currently, although she played ukulele for her first handful of years performing. Her influences range from Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells to Roger Miller and Bessie Smith.

Alison spent about 10 years based out of Richmond, Virginia where she was described as Richmond’s chanteuse “with a huge voice unlike any other female singer in Richmond” and until the end of her time living in the region (2015), became a well known musician who booked other acts in town, had side projects and toured the US.

Alison traveled west in a 96 Oldsmobile with no working windows for most of 2015, with a stint in Southwest VA then Nashville TN, until her car broke down outside of Denver. She played some shows and worked for a few months, decided it was time to go and drunkenly bought a $20 plane ticket to Austin TX. Figuring she had nothing to lose she sold her car for $200 and got rid of mostly everything she had carried with her and made the move. Austin was home for Alison for the past two years until she decided to uproot once again and make the move to Portland OR back in October 2018.

Traveling and restlessness have been strong themes in Alison’s songs which are influenced strongly by her early 20s spent hitch hiking and hopping a few freight trains here and there. Simply put, Alison writes from lived experiences. Thematically her songs run along the same lines of most honky tonk singers, past and present: working class upbringing, death, trains, bad decisions and too much booze.

CDs recorded:

Honky Tonk Haze - 2020

Cowboy Coffee 2014

Fall Recordings 2013

Sweet Fern - S/T 2012

GR&TS- "Gas Aint' Cheap" July 2012 Reltone Records

Alison Self- "Live At The Listening Room" February 2011

Alison Self- “Self -Titled” April 2009

Arise Sweet Donkey- “S/T” November 2009

Gail Ruby and The Sheik “I Already Got You” May 2006- Reltone Records



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