Worcester-born Alisan Porter has seemingly lived multiple lifetimes, with many of her dreams having already come true. She won Star Search at the age of 5, starred in a John Hughes film, and won The Voice in 2016.
It’s her actual dreams though which can be found on this year’s Americana EP The Ride. “‘In dream, [the song] will be on a loop,” Porter says.
“So, for instance, [the song] ‘Meant For Me,’ I woke up with, ‘Every night I lie awake, my head spins like a storm, the only thing that calms me down is laying in your arms…’ and then woke up and literally the beginning of this EP was that.“
Alisan Porter designed The Ride to focus more on country and Americana than her previous discography, thereby setting herself up for the future. “Americana is just, it lends itself to a lot of things, right? Like, you can age in it, number one. You can sing a lot of different ways in it, number two. And it’s storytelling, which is like my favorite thing ever. So I think it makes the most sense for me. I don’t really want to wear booty shorts and high boots. I think that ship has sailed. But I’m happy to just wear a dress and some cowboy boots, you know and be old and sing these kind of ageless songs that everybody can relate to.”
“Rivers Dry” is a piano ballad opener, which dovetails nicely from the last track on her last album Pink Cloud, a through line between the two. “Nothing’s Broken” is a festival ready romp that sounds ready to be dropped in any episode of the “Yellowstone” universe. The soulful, vocal acrobatic title-track anchors the record in the three spot, while “Bleedin’” plods along at a deathly pace. “See In The Dark” and “Meant For Me” are tailwinds that send The Ride out into the sunset.
So how does Porter make the dreams come alive? Natural talent and training from an early age sure but one of the keys is her lifelong ability to seize the moment when she needs it most.
When remembering the blind audition on The Voice, the made-for-tv-moment where Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, and Pharrell are clamoring over themselves to hit the buzzers to see who is singing, Alisan recalls:
“Yeah, you hear [the buzzers] it’s very hard not to be emotional at that time, so I was like, ‘just keep singing, just keep singing, just keep singing’…So much had happened previous to me walking back kind of into the fire. I was like, if it’s not the bomb, we’re not doing it. So every time I stepped on that stage, it was like a do or die situation for me.”
The singer-songwriter is performing at The Cut in Gloucester on November 30th and City Winery in Boston on December 4th.