For the New York-based artist, country music is not a trend โ it's in her roots. Photos by Kristin Karch. Willow Avalon is the kind of girl people write songs about. Many of the comments under her videos share the same adoring sentiment. I spoke with Willow on a bright Friday afternoon in mid-February, two weeks before the release of Stranger, and one week before she left for tour with fellow southerner and rising star, Briston Maroney. Unmixed, unmastered, and featuring a cover photo taken on an iPhone 5, the track garnered unexpected attention.
When a song of hers was featured on hit TV series Riverdale, the managers started calling. But I let them fly me out to New York. Willow grew up in rural Georgia, playing the piano at the local Baptist church in a town with no more than people. It was not until her pre-teen years that Willow performed publicly, on a stage with a band, for the first time. She found her safe space as a musician at Camp Amped , an Athens, Georgia-based summer program for budding musicians, with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.
I got very lucky, but I also worked hard. The city also offers reprieve from things and people best left on the West Coast. Clever moments like this are woven throughout Stranger.
In a world that is chronically online and constantly inundated with oftentimes concerning information, authenticity is rare and more valuable than ever. Willow Avalon has that special something โ that je ne sais quoi that her TikTok comments hit on โ because she is real, and she makes music that feels real.
Willow may be the kind of girl people write songs about, but her new EP proves that she writes much better songs for herself. I was a waitress for a really long time, and I thought that was probably going to be the end all be all.
