New Orleans-based songwriter Alison McConnell is a potent mix of emotion, experience and musicianship. Her bluesy, slow-burning originals are framed with highly personal lyrics that pull beauty out of pain, suffering and loss.
Her first record, These Walls, is a vibrant mix of traditional and modern blues music tinged with soul, gospel and good old-fashioned rock & roll. Released in February 2016, the EP features five original songs.
Alison is supported onstage by The Medicine Men, four New Orleans pros who bring a funky edge to her originals and a long list of classic blues and soul covers. They cover high-energy classics by Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi, BB King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Janis Joplin, the Allman Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Led Zeppelin, Al Green, and more.
Alison hails from upstate New York and made her way to the Crescent City in early 2016. She has worked as a journalist, editor, cook, caterer, strength and conditioning coach, and holistic health advocate in former lives - everything from covering White House press conferences to selling pasture-raised meats out of the back of her Outback.
A natural-born writer, Alison has amassed a genre-spanning portfolio of short stories, long-form fiction, poetry, music and feature articles.