About

Dusk is that time of day that produces regret, uncertainty, and hope. Regret about what could have been, uncertainty about the choices ahead, and hope for what tomorrow will bring.

Singer-songwriter Alaina Stacey set out to musically interpret the aesthetics of that precarious time in her new EP, DUSK, her third and final EP in a 19-song set respectively titled DAWN, DAY and DUSK.

 “Being a performer in Nashville made me aware of the constant attempt artists make to create a ‘sound’ that reflects the musical genre into which they best seem to fit,” Alaina explains. “With this project, I decided to relieve myself of that burden for a moment and create a sound that reflected – to me – different times of the day.”

In the preceding EP, DAY, Alaina walked into broad daylight with a determination to right all her wrongs. In DUSK,  she explores joy, regret, and the paralysis of choice that uncertainty brings at the end of the day, whether singing about the melancholic reminiscence of an ex in Think of You, what to make of the secrets a drunken lover spills in Drunken Lullaby, or the inner conflict of a roller coaster relationship in Revolve.

“I’ve always had problems making decisions. Who knows? Maybe it’s because making decisions in my family always spirals into a lengthy (and lively) debate,” Alaina muses.

Alaina grew up with three brothers in a musical family in Chicago that immersed itself in rock, pop, folk, standards and musical theatre. Her parents played in an alt-rock band, and she recalls being told that “folks would come to shows just to see if my pregnant mom was going to go into labor onstage.” 

When she turned 10, her dad took her on a road trip out west. “There was a family tradition that he would take each kid on a special trip when they turned ten, so he could get some one-on-one father-kid time with us.”  The trip ended up being more formative than he could have imagined, as driving through Colorado and Utah, Alaina heard country music on the radio for the first time.  “I became completely obsessed,” she explains.  “I think the first song I heard was Brad Paisley’s ‘Alcohol,’ and then later I got really into Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift, and Kacey Chambers, who was my ultimate songwriting muse.”   

Her obsession drove her to start playing guitar and writing songs that year. At 13, she joined a country band as a backing singer and played shows opening for Trace Adkins, Sarah Evans and LeAnn Rimes. When she was 16, a Christian Century magazine review stated that Alaina sounded like the long-lost little sister of Emmylou Harris, with high lonesome ‘woos’ that conveyed “a whirlwind full of autumn shivers.”

Two years later, as a teenage actress, and uncertain about the path she would take with her life, she caught the attention of theatre critics Chris Jones (Chicago Tribune) and Hedy Weiss (Chicago Sun-Times) for what Weiss called “her knockout of a performance” in Profiles Theatres’ Dream of the Burning Boy. Her performance was highlighted by Jones in his year-end review of the Best of Chicago theater, calling Alaina “powerful” in Burning Boy.

Soon after, Weiss unexpectedly found Alaina on stage performing original songs and wrote: “I was impressed by her lush voice, her captivating melodies and lyrics, and her wholly easeful stage presence, fully expecting her to stay in Chicago to act.” Alaina instead headed to Nashville to launch a music career.

In Nashville, she co-founded the Americana group, Maybe April.  Following the early success of their viral Audio Tree Live video, the group performed at festivals, including South by Southwest, Pilgrimage, CMA Fest, Bristol Rhythm and Roots and IBMA Fest. The group also appeared in venues with Brandy Clark, Sarah Jarosz, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson, Joy Williams, and Gavin DeGraw, among others.

“Moving to Nashville was a big leap,” she says, “and when I think about me now versus then, I just didn’t understand the importance of everyday life. I think I let a lot of time slip by.  There were a lot of awesome moments, but I think I have a much greater appreciation now for how much every moment matters.”

Uncertainty also finds its way into the musical choices in DUSK, and the exploration of new musical genres. While Think of You and Stan (a song written from the point of view of her Alzheimer stricken grandfather, who experienced “sundowning” at dusk) are grounded in Alaina’s Americana and Country Music roots, other songs point in different directions. Revolve, produced by Chicago’s Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine, Counting Crows), and Drunken Lullaby, suggests a more indie sound. In Late Night Lies, she unabashedly falls into the throwback whimsical pop crooning style of a Burt Bacharach song.

Her song, Insomnia, illustrates the downside of too much nighttime navel gazing. However, the uncertainty of a new day also brings the hope of springing out of that paralysis of choice into action.  Fully awake, and hopeful for tomorrow, Alaina is happy to get this project out into the world.