- BeehivePhoto
Local singer/songwriter Alicia Stockman's style of Americana goodness and warm folk tradition is one she's settled into comfortably over the years, gaining accolades at songwriter competitions like the Songwriter Serenade, Tucson Folk Festival, Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival and winning the Susanne Millsaps Performing Singer-Songwriter Showcase at the Utah Arts Festival in 2017. On those and other stages, it's often been just her and her guitar, but she's dabbled with bands before.
But it wasn't until this year—after gaining support from a Kickstarter campaign—that she was able to book time to put together a full album in a setting designed for bringing out the best in her songs. With the help of her friend and mentor, Nashville's "Americana Queen" Mary Bragg, Stockman's finally put ten precious songs out into the world after a long time holding onto them, in the album These Four Walls, which came out Nov. 5.
"When I was picking the songs for the album, I started with 35 or 40 songs" written over years spent performing live, Stockman says. "When the pandemic came, I had time to actually focus on them and give them the TLC that they deserve and put together this collection that at the time I felt was long overdue,"
Those songs range in emotion from quiet joy to heavy sadness to determination—a lot of determination. Songs like "Grit" and the title track bleed the emotion, the former being a steely-eyed, "cast iron" nod to getting back up when the world knocks you down and skins your knees. The latter is, however, a gentle and introspective track about moving out of stifling surroundings, even if it just means opening the windows to let in a crossbreeze. "'These Four Walls' was super near and dear to my heart; that's like my mental health song," says Stockman of the deeply melodic track, which is also one of the songs that actually references a personal time in her life.
She also draws from her own life on "Just Checking In," which is a nostalgic, warm look back at the past and old friendship. It also showcases Stockman at her most Jewel-like—a sweet delight, and one of the best songs on the album. "Halfway to Houston" is another, though the framework and refrain of Stockman breaking down—literally in a car and emotionally—on her way out of a relationship uses Houston as a metaphorical vehicle, since Stockman's stomping grounds lie north, here in Utah. "Car breaking down halfway through Texas, that didn't happen, but it was about processing the break up," she says.
She also calls it a hybrid of her two styles, personal and fictional narrative. "The story of the song is not exactly what happened, but this sentiment is what happened, so the emotional quotient is correct," she says. "I had to somehow make this term 'halfway to Houston' work every time I came back around to it, so I used it as creative license to write a story—but I also used it to process what I was going through at the time." Spoken like a true disciple of Americana, where a Western trope like the expanse of the Texas sky becomes the perfect space to process a change just as big.
Her other writing style, of fictional narrative, also yields some of the best songwriting on the album, particularly on tracks like "Used to the Cold," which is one of the oldest songs she was wrestling with for These Four Walls. "It's just a really sad song, and I never knew where it fit—it's hard for me to put into a live set, I didn't know where it belonged," Stockman explins. "My producer, Mary, it really resonated with her, and she said 'let's do it justice.'"
And with the lineup of talented musicians Bragg and Stockman had on hand to provide backing instrumentation throughout the album—providing valuable input as well as their bass, guitar and drums—the song became a quiet stunner, with lap steel that weeps alongside the story of dreams lost to a lover's drink. "It was tough, I had to make sure that I didn't get too preachy with a story that I was borrowing, so I worked hard on [doing] it right," Stockman admits. Without being personal, though, the songwriting displayed is still some of the most affecting and relatable on the album, imparting the pain of a life worn thin by time.
Besides finding the musicians to help do right by her music, Stockman's also found valuable insights into other parts of the music world in Nashville, namely from other musicians who are just as baffled at how to make a living in this changed landscape. While booking shows is still uncertain at a time when dates are still getting canceled and rebooked constantly, Stockman says she hopes to tour her polished songs soon. If you're already a fan, or you are after sitting down with These Four Walls, you can find the album and keep up with where to see her play at aliciastockman.com.