By Amy Nicole Tangel
Musicians in Nashville are currently feeling the heavy impact of being shut down, once again, after a recent rise in COVID cases, and many are resorting to taking their tip buckets and guitars to social media to make a means to survive and feed their families, but for one singer who has built her career by opening her own doors, it is her time to shine.
Rising above difficult times is nothing new for Nashville musician, Allie Sealey, who in large part has built her career as an independent artist with the help of all the tools social media has to offer, but with the current pause to the live music scene, she is putting in overtime using those skills to continue to share her music online with fans and support the recent release of her new single, “Wherever I Go.”
Before Allie decided to take a leap of faith and dedicate her life to making music, she was living in Northern California where she was born and raised in the bay area outside of San Francisco and taking care of her grandfather. She was his primary caregiver and he was her biggest fan. He was her best friend and he listened to her sing day in and day out. He kept encouraging her to make a go of it, but Allie said it was when her grandfather passed away when she finally found the courage. The painful feeling of grief was so traumatizing and devastating to her she said it made the fear of making a full go of her music career just disappear.
“I only want to play music all the time. That’s it. I literally wake up for it,” she said.
Since that time, Allie has moved to Nashville and released two albums, ‘Best Friend’ and her most recent, ‘Long Road.’ In the midst of her drive to make things happen these past few years, she also regularly auditioned for The Voice, and said it was on pure principle to keep going back to prove to herself she could do it and vowed to herself she was not giving up. Allie said although she didn’t get the glory like some people at the end of the day, she did get a call-back in Nashville with an on-camera interview and couldn’t have been more proud to have received a red card amongst thousands of other people.
“I went there just to prove a point that I am not a quitter. I will keep showing up; you will keep seeing my face,” she said.
Live streaming is nothing new to Allie, who has been maximizing her social media tools long before she moved to Nashville. The day Allie decided she wanted to make a life of music, she picked up a guitar, learned how to play and hit the street making her own stage. She said she didn’t care if anybody gave her a penny, she just wanted to sing and wasn’t going to wait for opportunity to knock on her door; she was going to open it herself. From performing up and down Broadway in Nashville, to now singing to her fans from home, Allie is once again creating her own path by maximizing Facebook, Instagram and iTunes to stay connected, share her music and continue to build her career.
“Mostly, I have really been hustling the Facebook platform,” she said.
Although Allie said she has always had a hard time labeling herself in any specific genre as she loves music across the board, her heart is with country. She said she was taught early on in the music business that you have to make your own yeses and you can’t rely on one thing to make your way. Allie believes when there is a will there’s a way, and she said she is seeing now in light of the times how businesses are realizing how technology can be used to their advantage. She is grateful now, more than ever, that she developed these skills long ago.
Last month, Allie had a milestone day in her life and her career when she turned 30-years-old on June 30, and her new song, a tribute to her grandfather, “Wherever I Go” was released from her second album making the charts on iTunes the very first day. In a moment of celebration during her birthday week, she decided to lighten things up and get out of the house, so she took a drive to Kentucky to sing with a Kid Rock tribute artist at an outside event. When the video of the performance made it on Instagram and Facebook, she said people thought she was really singing with Kid Rock, and although she enjoyed the humor of it, she said if ever given the opportunity she would love to sing with the real Kid Rock someday.
Most recently, Country Rebel, a clothing line and online news source for all things country music featured Allie’s new cover song of Wynonna Judd’s, “No One Else on Earth,” on their Facebook page earning over 82,000 views to date and rising for her video. With a growing fanbase and commitment to what she loves, one by one, Allie is taking every opportunity as a blessing that comes her way to share the songs she sings with the world anyway she knows how. Through it all, she is making the most of the situation and is hoping the future holds opportunities to travel again with her music, but at the end of the day she simply just wants to make music every single day no matter where she is.
“I want to take this to a place where I am able to do what I love, which I do, you know, play music and writing songs to be able to live,” she said.
Allie Sealey’s music can be found on most streaming platforms such as Pandora, Spotify and you can purchase both albums in their entirety on iTunes. For additional information, you can visit www.alliesealey.com. To keep up to date and to see Allie’s most recent live music videos you can follow her on Facebook.com/alliesealeymusic and Instagram @alliesealy.
Photos and video courtesy of Allie Sealey