Alaina Stacey
Responsible Agent: Andrew Bestick
Links: Website | Instagram | YouTube | Audiotree Session
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Over the course of three EPs, Chicago-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Alaina Stacey sets out to musically interpret the aesthetics of DAWN, DAY, and DUSK. It is an untraditional approach for a recording project, but one that she hopes reflects the scope of life that these songs cover. “These are songs that I’ve written over the last decade,” she explains. “They don’t all make sense on the same album. Instead I like to imagine them reflecting different sonic and emotional moments in my life.”
On her latest EP, “DAY,” which is the second in the three-part series EP series, Alaina hones in on active energy, the feeling of walking into broad daylight with a determination to right all of one’s wrongs.
Alaina grew up in a musical family in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago, and moved to Nashville at 18 where she toured and recorded with country trio Maybe April. With Maybe April, Alaina appeared onstage at the Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles, alongside Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson and The Goo Goo Doll’s Johnny Reznick as part of a GRAMMY week performance called A Song Is Born. Their Audiotree video went viral, and they remain one of Audiotree’s top twenty most popular videos. With Maybe April, she opened for Brandy Clark and Sarah Jarosz, and performed at Pilgrimage Music Festival, Merlefest, SXSW, CMA Fest, and other festivals, and released an EP and record, The Other Side, which was produced by her brother Julian. The band won “Americana Group of the Year” two years in a row at the Arkansas Country Music Awards.
Now working under her own name, Stacey’s solo work fuses her love of 90’s and early 2000’s country with other musical influences, both old and new. Recorded and produced by Evan Redwine in Nashville and Brian Deck in Chicago, Stacey’s EP “DAY” features a bright and sunny sonic outlook, despite many of the songs being drenched in heartbreak and lyrical melancholy. From “Break Your Heart” to “Liar,” Stacey works with an upbeat and shiny pallet to bring hard truths into the harsh light of day.
“I was impressed by her lush voice, her captivating melodies and lyrics, and her wholly easeful stage presence.”