Today’s spotlight shines on musical creative, Willow Avalon. The songstress is wise beyond her years and has talent to rival anyone in the industry. We chatted with the singer-songwriter about her upbringing, how she found music, and her debut album, Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell.

“I grew up in rural Georgia. My whole family was born and raised there. I grew up with crazy, crazy Southern women raising me in a town called Carlton, Georgia. It’s really little, but packs a punch,” began the singer. “It is my favorite place in the whole wide world. I just grew up in the Baptist church, the church helped me and my Mama with a lot of stuff because my mom was pretty much a single mom for a lot of raising me.”

Avalon credits her upbringing for her love of music, sharing that her father was an incredible singer, while her grandmother and her grandmother’s sisters had a country singing group. She added, “My Mama is very tone deaf, but she’s an incredible painter and knows everything there is to know about music.”

Throughout her childhood, the singer-songwriter sang in choir at church and even learned to be both piano and guitar. “Music has been my favorite thing since I was born pretty much,” she shared. Artists like Lucinda Williams influenced her songwriting, while greats like Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn blew her away vocally. She later would go on to take these influences to create her own special sound.

The Turning Point:

Despite always loving music, Avalon did not grow up thinking she would become what she is today. “It was something I kind of never thought would happen. I’ve had a kind of crazy life, and I didn’t expect really to be living past late teens, early twenties, and that was something that was sadly a pretty big reality where I’m from and the kind of cards that I was dealt,” she shared, adding, “Coming from a 200 population town and my Mama worked every possible job you can think of, which I also did when I left. […] The energy I felt was that I wasn’t going to be able to do what I wanted to do, and dreams were just dreams and they didn’t happen, but kind of in my heart and my head, I made myself a promise that no wasn’t in my vocabulary and if things knock you down, you just get back up.”

With inner strength that she may have not been aware of, Avalon left home at just sixteen years old. “I was a waitress for a really long time, I dropped out of high school, I never got a GED. I just worked service-industry for a long time and every other little job you can think of just to get by,” she shared. Eventually at just seventeen years old, Avalon moved to Los Angles, California.

Around the same time, the singer put out her first song, “Drive In,” which she wrote while living in her car in Atlanta at just sixteen years old. “It’s an unmixed, unmastered, MP3 with GarageBand on it, and I just threw it out there after my label dropped me, and it was right when COVID was happening. I just put it out and didn’t have any expectations about it.”

With the help of her then boyfriend, Andrew she decided to put out the single, as well as, post it on TikTok “Nothing really happened. I ended up getting some calls from management, and after I left that relationship, I ended up moving to New York and working with these mangers. I wasn’t very fond of the internet I guess. I thought TikTok was an analog clock app. […] I had no idea, so I moved here, and I made a TikTok account, and I just posted funny, silly stuff, and I had a video that went crazy, crazy viral, along with another video, and it truly just changed my life over night.”

Eventually the algorithm led her to where she is now, a signed recording artist with Assemble Sound / Atlantic Records. “The journey has been pretty windy and pretty crazy. Even when I thought something was a sure bet, it wasn’t. I kind of had to continuously put my heart on the line and just trust the process.”

Today:

Flash forward to today, Avalon recently released her debut project, Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell under Atlantic. “I’ve been so thankful for Atlantic to be so kind to give me creative liberty and make the records I want to make  and the ones that feel true to me,” she shared adding, “This whole record was about trusting my gut and writing songs that felt true, pure, and real to me, and making this record with people that felt like friends more than colleagues. I’d say it’s been a rocky road, but I’m so grateful, and I couldn’t be more proud of me and everyone on the team and everyone involved.”

The record features fourteen songs that speak to Avalon’s unique talent as an artist. Each of the songs feel like a special part of her heart and her journey, evoking vulnerability every step of the way.

“I just want people, specifically women to be able to relate to it, and find some solace and understanding that no matter where you are, the deck of cards you’re handed in your life is not the deck of cards you’re going to end up with. You can do absolutely anything you want to do if you put your heart to it and don’t let anyone tell you difference. It’s okay to be raw and vulnerable, which I have been a lot in this record. Hardships in your life don’t always have to weigh you down, they can be fruitful, and they can give something incredible, beautiful, and they can make art. I hope it resonates with people in a good way.”

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