Though she plays in Montgomery a lot, singer/songwriter Rachael Wilson was born, raised and still lives in Alexander City.
It’s a place she loves that holds a lot of memories. It just doesn’t have many places to perform.
“I pretty much have to commute for all my music stuff,” Wilson said. “They don’t have much of a music scene here, unfortunately.”
Still, she spends as much time as she can there, especially these days between the virus outbreak and spending time with her dad, who has cancer.
It’s also the place where all her critters live.
“My animals are my whole world,” said Wilson, who has five horses, six cats and five dogs.
“That’s pretty much what takes up my day, spending time with my dad, with my animals, writing music,” Wilson said. “I love the outdoors.”
Alexander City is also the place she discovered her love of music, with a lot of assistance from her family.
“(Music) was always therapy for me. It was a happy place,” Wilson said. “I was homeschooled. That’s kind of where my parents pushed me because they saw how much I loved it.”
From the age of 10, Wilson was writing songs.
“I think I always went to like folky stuff,” Wilson said. “I was a huge Beatles fan, but Nanci Griffith and Joni Mitchell were my heroes growing up. I kind of knew that’s the stuff that I would write.”
Music runs in the family. Her dad played guitar and sang, and Wilson’s mom had a voice with amazing range. Wilson remembers hearing her mom sing songs from people like Mitchell and Janis Joplin.
“She could belt out gospel and rock and roll,” Wilson said. “She had an amazing set of pipes on her.”
Wilson’s gift with guitar stems from her grandmother, a woman who could have been good enough to make a go of it in Nashville.
“My grandmother was a beast,” Wilson said. “I think she was 16 when they asked her to go on the Grand Ole Opry, and her mother wouldn’t let her go.”
Eventually her grandmother would pass along guitar lessons to 12-year-old Wilson. They spent two years together doing that.
“I don’t think I’m nearly as good as she was, but it was just amazing to have somebody that talented in my family to teach me the basics,” Wilson said.
After that, Wilson said she continued lessons with Freddie Lynch from Alexander City.
“Basically teaching me the pentatonic scale, different chords and stuff,” Wilson said. “It made me move along further in my musical abilities.”
Those abilities are still growing and taking new forms.
Wilson said she’s been planning to do an album for a while now. The only issue is choosing what kind to record.
“I’ve been all over the place about it, because I can’t really pick a genre,” she said.
Her tastes and music range from blues to folk to pop country.
“I don’t want to be that person who releases an album with like 20 songs, and they don’t flow together at all,” Wilson said.
Since the virus hit, Wilson said she’s been spending much of her quarantine time focusing on “folky, emotional ballad type stuff” that she can connect with.
“I think that’s the album I want to put out,” she said.
She’s also planning on doing another album with the group SALVO, formerly known as Pain.
“I did a feature on one of the songs that they released last year,” Wilson said. “That was ‘Keep My Peace.’ I really enjoyed that, so I’m looking forward to working with them again.”
On Saturday, Wilson has a solo 9 p.m. show at The Zip Line, 21 Coliseum Blvd., Montgomery.
Much of her performances are solo or duo, like this past Saturday’s show at downtown Montgomery’s Common Bond Brewers. She appreciates how they were able to social distance with the audience that night.
While she has plenty of original music, covers are what many crowds expect. Wilson doesn’t disappoint.
“Covers are my bread and butter, because a lot of times in a bar scene that’s what gets them excited,” Wilson said. “They want something familiar. That’s what you’re getting your tips from.”
Still, she does work her songs into the lineup, and says she appreciates the people who come to hear them. The look on their faces touches her heart, she said.
“Getting to make music is such a blessing,” Wilson said. “I just want to play what people want to hear.”
Follow her on Facebook @RachaelWilsonMusic.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel at sheupel@gannett.com.
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