LISTEN: “CLIMBER”
Nashville-based singer/songwriter Ali Sperry has released “Climber,” the latest from her forthcoming LP In Front Of Us, due out on March 11th. “In March of 2018, my friend Becca Richardson was sitting across from me in my music room, and as co-writes often go, we got to talking at length about our lives, plans, the music we were both making, our thoughts on the current government administration, and a topic that was very much in the spotlight and on our minds at that moment, the #MeToo movement,” Sperry told The Bluegrass Situation in the premiere. “From these musings, ‘Climber’ took shape — not as a song specifically about a single person or story, but an archetype and universal experience we all know too well. It’s the age-old tale of the charming narcissist who commands the room, puts you on a pedestal until they no longer choose to shine their light on you, and the subsequent anger that fuels the recipient of this behavior to shut it down.”
“Climber,” the first song on the album, signifies the ushering in of a new era — globally and personally — with a revitalized sense of empowerment and newly minted boundaries. Audley Freed’s electric guitar sounds like it’s having a conversation with Kristin Weber’s strings, building into this catharsis of the final chorus with Allison Russell and Weber’s harmony vocals lifting the melody.
The track follows the release of “Excuses,” which explores the innate anger that comes from the human experience, “In Your Dreams,” about being your authentic self, and “Cool Under Pressure,” inspired by watching Kamala Harris in the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate. “I stirred with pride to be a woman, pride to witness such a woman demonstrating her ability for leadership,” Sperry recalls. “The way she elegantly fought for her time to speak, insisted upon it, was almost shocking to me, as it was an example too-seldom seen.”
LISTEN: “EXCUSES”
LISTEN: “IN YOUR DREAMS”
LISTEN: “COOL UNDER PRESSURE”
Sperry, a yogi who grew up in a small Iowa community built around the practice of Transcendental Meditation, moved to Nashville in 2009. Since then, she has become a beloved member of the Nashville creative community, frequently sought after for collaborations and co-writes due to her songwriting prowess. She has shared stages with the likes of Nicki Bluhm, Langhorne Slim, Andrew Combs, Mipso, Kelsey Waldon, Erin Rae, and more.
In 2020, when faced with a year of trauma, racial reckoning, and downright worldwide existential crisis, Sperry did what she has always done–turned inward and wrote songs that channeled, mirrored, and ultimately distilled those cultural currents into what became In Front Of Us. The album was made in the thick of the pandemic and was produced by her husband, Jamie Dick. The restrictions of life compelled the couple to set up a home studio and create a safe place to make the record, remotely collaborating with friends like Allison Russell, Kyshona, Jill Andrews, Natalie Schlabs, Sadler Vaden, Jill Andrews, and more.
With In Front Of Us, Sperry wisely avoids long-form folk indulgence for streamlined contours and razor hooks that feel more rock/pop than folk, and are fairly begging for a decent car stereo and an open road. In her singing and writing, she is the people’s champ of the “less is more" ethos. There is a slight echo of Laurel Canyon in the sonics of the record, and, always, the confident under-singing of a woman who knows her words and melodies will happily do the heavy lifting.