Canadian singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Allison Russell grew up in Montreal in the early 80’s and into the mid-90’s before leaving home as a teenager. Born to a teenage single mother, Allison’s early experiences with music were at first a conduit to feeling connected to her mother as she played the piano, then just a few years into her young life, it became a tool for cruelty and control by her abusive adoptive father, and music became something Allison learned to protect for herself. As a child, she became a self described escapist reader, and began writing melodies to songs and poems she saw in books, from Tolkien to English child ballads out of the Norton Anthology.

After a decade of suffering severe sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her adoptive father, Allison escaped, as a world of music and art was opening to her. During this season finale of Mixtape Memoir, we will take the painful yet incredibly inspiring journey with Allison Russell that will bring us from her traumatic beginnings, to the resilience, love and support she discovered finding her chosen family in the artistic communities of Montreal, then in Vancouver where she would co-found her first band, Po’ Girl in the early 2000’s with Trish Klein of The Be Good Tanyas, and then on the road where she would meet her future bandmate in Our Native Daughters, Rhiannon Giddens, and most fortuitous of all, her future life partner and Birds of Chicago bandmate, JT Nero.

Now based in Nashville, Allison Russell’s solo debut, Outside Child was released this year to critical acclaim. A musical memoir of its own kind, it chronicals Allison’s experience as a survivor of childhood physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, while it delivers a message of healing, strength and joy. And that survivor’s joy as she calls it, is at the heart of her art, and what we hear as together we create Allison Russell's Mixtape Memoir. 

Credits:
Host/creator/creative director - Carmel Holt @carmelholt @sheroesmixtape @sheroesradio
Engineer/Mixing/Mastering - Brendan Baker from Phenomephon
Theme music - Lucius @ilovelucius
Cover art - @jaf_farkas
Art direction - @carmelholt 
Guest: Allison Russell / @allisonrussellmusic @birdsofchicago @ournativedaughters 
Label: Fantasy Records / @fantasyrecords