Allison Russell
plus support
Thursday 22nd June 2023
The Bullingdon, 162 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1UE
Doors 7.30 pm
Tickets £20 in advance, £24 on the night
plus support
Thursday 22nd June 2023
The Bullingdon, 162 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1UE
Doors 7.30 pm
Tickets £20 in advance, £24 on the night
Buy tickets . . .
Empty Room Promotions 2023 ©
In association with Wasserman
Due to sound check restriction the door time indicates the earliest opportunity we can give access to the venue. Live music will start 20-30 minutes after the door open time.
Allison Russell is a poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist and co-founder of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah) and Birds of Chicago (with JT Nero).
She sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places and people and realisations that helped her survive and claim her freedom. Her debut album ‘Outside Child’ received three Grammy Award nominations including Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Performance, and Best American Roots Song. ‘Outside Child’ was also nominated for four Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Polaris Music Prize, and two Juno Awards.
Russell is the first-ever Black artist to win a Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in Juno history. Russell won Album of the Year at the Americana Music Association Awards alongside her two other nominations that night for Song of the Year and Artist of the Year. Befittingly, the New York Times named ‘Outside Child’ the #2 Best Album of 2021.
Born and raised in Montreal, Russell imbues her music with the colors of her city - the light, the landscape, the language - but also the trauma that she suffered there. It is a heartbreaking reflection on a childhood no one should have to endure, and at the same time a powerful reclamation - asserted from a place of healing, of motherhood, of partnership - and from a new homemade in Nashville. The record features contributions from many of the artistic family members she has found there including producer Dan Knobler, Erin Rae, Jamie Dick, Joe Pisapia, The McCrary Sisters, Ruth Moody, Yola, and her partner JT Nero. “It was just about making these songs live and breathe in the most honest way,” Russell says. “We were laughing, we were crying. And the communion between musicians, I hope people can hear that on the record. It felt like magic.”
