Release Date: May 1, 2020
Genre: Folk
Label: Independent
Allison Leah is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist currently based out of Nashville, Tennessee via New York. Her most recent single, “We Can Still Sing,” is a powerful, sentimental, and intimate look into the COVID-19 lockdown that’s first hand told through Allison’s stunning voice and honest words. “We Can Still Sing” was produced and mixed by her dad, the veteran music producer Jon Altschiller. Known for his work with artists such as Mandy Moore, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, John Mayer, and many, many more.
Originally, Allison was turned onto music at a young age and was a jingle-singer. She spent the earliest years of her life and her career in the studio recording familiar commercial jingles like the “Hess Truck” Christmas commercial from 1997. However, she was still working on her own original music all those years ago. Her exposure to the music industry at such a young age gifted her a love of music that lead her down a path in music of her own. In 2018, Allison released her debut EP, Fly Home, which has now reached an accumulative 300,000 plus streams, just on Spotify alone.
“We Can Still Sing” came about shortly after March 12, 2020. She was in Nashville and her spring tour was set to begin the following day. That night on March 12, it was approximately 9:30 p.m. and the tour was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID-19. She felt sad, scared, angry, and confused, as many have, and still are around the world because of these strange, unprecedented times all around the globe. Alongside her dad, the two drove back to New York and hunkered down with immediate family as practically everyone else did.
Her coping mechanism through everything was her guitar and writing music. She sat down one day to vent her feelings and this was when the first verse of “We Can Still Sing” was written. A good remainder of the track draws strong influence from a video she saw while scrolling on Instagram where people were singing from their balconies in lockdown, which happened pretty early on in the closure of the world. With love, hope, kindness, and family now on her brain, the rest of “We Can Still Sing” was solidified as she sat back down with her guitar to finish what is now “We Can Still Sing.”
The single had help from her dad, her siblings, and her friend Noah Chichester. Her friend Noah lives in Spain and has been performing concerts out of his window all through the COVID-19 lockdown, just like the people she saw in the video that inspired the song. The Spanish vocal samples you hear on the track are direct recordings from his window concerts while in lockdown in Spain. He’s even featured on the single’s artwork that’s seen above. Aforementioned, “We Can Still Sing” was produced and mixed by her dad, Allison herself performed the lead vocals, all the guitar, piano, and bass, while her whole family did the track's percussion. The backing tracks on “We Can Still Sing” are performed both by her siblings and Noah. It’s the perfect embodiment of positivity for what 2020 has been.
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