Allison Russell

A compelling singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with strong ties to the folk community, Allison Russell is a Canadian artist who first made her name in the 2000s as a member of the eclectic Canadian roots group Po' Girl before forming the duo Birds of Chicago in 2012 with her husband and creative partner JT Nero. Taking inspiration from a wide array of sources, Russell’s songs have threaded through jazz, country, folk, Celtic, klezmer, and blues to become a distinctive amalgam of her own making. Not unlike fellow Renaissance woman and Our Native Daughters bandmate Rhiannon Giddens, her musical versatility has made her difficult to pigeonhole while also helping to establish her as a linchpin of roots music in general. In 2021, after two decades of musical exploration, Russell made her solo debut with the Juno Award-winning Outside Child. Her solo follow-up, the joyful The Returner, arrived two years later.
Born in Montreal to a teenaged Canadian mother and Grenadian father who left before she was born, Russell endured foster care until, at the age of five, she came to live with her mother and stepfather. Creatively inclined from a young age, she used music as an emotional escape from the trauma of sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. She ran away at the age of 15, living rough in Montreal while managing to finish high school. A cross-country move to Vancouver helped establish Russell in a new and nurturing creative community, and in 2001 she formed Po' Girl with Trish Klein, formerly of alt-country act the Be Good Tanyas. A mix of originals and traditional songs, Russell served as co-frontwoman while playing everything from clarinet to the banjo. Po' Girl’s stylistic mix of old-time, jazz, folk, and other roots elements won them an international fan base, and they went on to release four acclaimed albums.
After 2010′s Follow Your Bliss, Russell relocated to Chicago, where she began working with musician and future husband JT Nero. A mix of gospel-inspired folk and Americana, Birds of Chicago released their eponymous first album in 2012 and began touring the American folk festival and club circuit. The two married in 2013 and gave birth to a daughter. 2016′s Joe Henry-produced Real Midnight raised their profile significantly and they returned in 2018 on a new label, Signature Sounds, with Love and Wartime. By this time, the duo had moved to Nashville, deepening their connections with the roots music community.
Russell was approached by Rhiannon Giddens to join the banjo-driven folk group Our Native Daughters, which showcased Black female musicians and focused on issues of race and the history of slavery. They made their debut on the Smithsonian Folkways label in 2019. By this point, Russell had developed a group of songs that boldly and poignantly told the story of her own personal history, particularly in regards to her abuse as a child. Recording in Nashville with producer Dan Knobler, she and a group of collaborators knocked out the sessions for Outside Child in just four sessions. The album was released to critical acclaim in May 2021 by the Fantasy label and won several Canadian Folk Music Awards and the Juno Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year. For her next solo release, Russell took a different tack. Less overtly autobiographical and more groove-based, 2023′s The Returner was a passionate and joyful album which focused on the pleasures of the here and now. Co-producing alongside Knobler and Dim Star, it was recorded in Los Angeles over a six-day period. ~ Timothy Monger