In Conversation with Colin: Ally Venable

Newport City Radio’s Colin Palmer caught up with Ally Venable and chatted about some of the blues rock artists she has worked with as well as learning more about her latest album Money & Power.

The blues genre of music has gotten far away from what it symbolised in the 1900’s. It’s happened to country music as well. Blues has a formulaic subject range and an attitude. Few of today’s blues musicians ever lived the blues, that’s why they are interpreters. Blues requires an interpretation of deep rooted feelings and Ally Venable succeeds at this task, none more so than with her new album Money & Power.

People have described her as the future of blues and the crossover music of American roots and rock. As she thinks about her role in the world of blues rock, Venable said she finds the opportunity to inspire others to pursue music gratifying.

A native of Kilgore, Texas, the 25-year-old musician was drawn to the emotive nature of blues but admits she wasn’t the typical image of a blues fan, let alone a musician. Her latest single Do You Cry has been played regularly on Newport City Radio’s show ‘The Rock Vault’ and is a scathing breakup song with scornful lyrics and a brooding atmosphere. Her proficiency in the emotional side of blues is on full display in the song. Some musicians gradually ease into their sound, while others kick down the door at a young age in a fiery blaze – Ally Venable is very much the latter.

Over the past decade, the Les Paul guitar-toting Texan has become a hot commodity in contemporary blues circles. Her 2021 release, Heart of Fire, produced by the late Jim Gaines hit number two on Billboard’s Blues Albums chart, and she’s proved to be a hot ticket in concert.

“We just lost Jim, he was just a beautiful soul and a great person to work with,” Ally tells me from her new home in Kilgore Texas. “He worked with so many amazing artists like Carlos Santana, Steve Miller, George Thorogood and so

many others and I got to be around Jim and his work routine and I’m very grateful that I had that experience with him and collaborate with him on my album Heart Of Fire.”

Appearing on that album were award winning guitarists and songwriters Devon Allman and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. “Both are dear friends of mine to this day, and of course at the time that we were recording the album,” Ally explains with genuine modesty. “I’ve opened shows for Kenny and I’m so grateful he could play on my album it just elevated the song so much. As well as Devon, he actually produced the song he played on with me called Road To Nowhere and I still play that in my live set. At the time of the session he used a King Of Tone pedal by Analogman for his solo and he also did some backing vocals and co-wrote the song with me as well. We recorded in Memphis, Tennessee and he hired an amazing cellist to play on the song and later after the sessions had finished he gifted me the pedal which I still use to this day in all of my sets and on all of the albums after that one. They are both great friends of mine and I’m so grateful they played on my album.”

Ally is a world-class guitar player with a soul-stirring singing voice and an ear for melodies that make her songs stand out on modern radio. Over a thirteen year career that has – so far – seen her release six records, Ally has barely stopped for air. She released her debut EP, Wise Man, at just fourteen years of age and quickly climbed the Texas blues scene ranks and earned her a reputation as a rising star on the Lone Star State’s blues scene, which is no small achievement at any age. Now in her mid-twenties, with multiple ETX Music Awards under her belt, she is already a force to be reckoned with and just getting started. Much as her 2019 single Texas Honey implies, Venable’s sound is dripping with tasteful vocal melodies and juicy guitar riffs. Stevie Ray Vaughan being a major influence

“What got me started into playing blues music was when I discovered who Stevie Ray Vaughan was, and Jim (Gaines) produced Stevie Ray’s In Step record and he told me a really cool story about the song Riviera Paradise. He had only a certain amount of time on the tape when they recorded that and towards the end of that song Jim was trying to get their attention. He had dimmed the lights and made it all moody for Stevie and the band, and he noticed that the time was about to run out on the tape and he was trying to get their attention

by waving his arms until finally he got the bass player’s attention and finally Stevie’s attention, and I thought that was a cool story that he told me.”

There’s a theme to the new album Money & Power, “I felt there were missing parts of the puzzle that we were creating and I was thinking about money and power and what that means for me, and what does that mean for a wide variety of people. When I started my career I was twelve years old and now I’m twenty five, and now that I’m an adult and looking at what’s going on around me and looking to my inspirations like Buddy Guy and how they weren’t afraid to say what they wanted to say and that gives me the confidence to say what I want to say. I feel like blues music can almost be used as protest music in a way, there’s a big community around it and as artists we have this outlet that a lot of people don’t have and it’s important to really hone in on your feelings and your emotions not only for yourself to connect with it but certain people in your community connect with it and have that voice that maybe they don’t have. I really wanted to collectively do that with this album and with the title track specifically.”

“I’m very proud about this album, I’ve put all of my emotions and all of my energy and all of me into it and I’m excited and nervous all at the same time for people to hear it, and I’ve never felt like that about an album before. Real Gone was very exciting and I was excited to put it out but with this new album I’m truly just having all the emotions about it which I feel is a good thing.”

Ally Venable’s new album Money & Power is released April 18th 2025

Excerpts of this interview were broadcast on The Rock Vault 15th April 2025 and you can listen again here: https://player.autopod.xyz/872731