Allison Russell
Allison Russell is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician and activist.
Allison Russell
Prior to her solo music career, Russell performed as a member of various music groups including Po' Girl,[1] Birds of Chicago,[2] Our Native Daughters[3] and Sisters of the Strawberry Moon.[4] She released her first solo album, Outside Child, in 2021.[5] The album was nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award in the Best Americana Album category, and the single "Nightflyer" was nominated for both the Best American Roots Performance (Russell) and Best American Roots Song (Russell and Jeremy Lindsay, co-writers).[6]
Her second album, The Returner was released in September 2023. The album received four Grammy Award nominations including Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song and Best Americana Performance for the album's title track "The Returner". It also won the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance for the single "Eve Was Black".[7][8]
Russell has received a total of eight Grammy nominations (with one win),[7] four Canadian Folk Music Awards and two Juno Awards and has been named to the long list for the Polaris Music Prize.[9][10]
Early life and education[edit]
Russell was born in Montreal to a Grenadian father and a Scottish-Canadian teenage single mother.[11][12] Her mother struggled with postpartum depression and schizophrenia, and Russell was initially placed in foster care.[13] Her mother regained custody of her after marrying a white-supremacist American expatriate.[11][12][13] From the ages of 5 to 15, she was physically and sexually abused by her adoptive father.[11][12][13] At the age of 15, Russell ran away from home, eventually moving to Vancouver in 1998.[12][14][15] She attended Dawson College.[16]
Personal life[edit]
In 2013, Russell married her Birds of Chicago bandmate Jeremy Lindsay (stage name JT Nero).[52][12][53] They were close friends and housemates.[12][54] Russell gave birth to their daughter, Ida, in 2014.[55]
Russell identifies as queer and stated in an interview that "I fall in the middle of the spectrum of orientation. I’ve been in love with women and I’ve been in love with men and I’ve been in love with trans people and I’ve been in love with non-binary people. I wound up falling in love and committing to share a life with a man, my husband. One could assume that I’m straight, but I am not and especially in this time of increased polarization and bigotry, it is really important that people understand that nothing is black and white. Nothing is simple and you can’t assume that because I am married to a man and I have a child that I am a straight person. You can’t say homophobic things to me and have it pass. Part of me wanted to really acknowledge that publicly". She stated that "Persephone", a song from her debut album, was written about her first love, a woman she met during her teenage years.[56]
In 2023, she told Out that she was a "hopeful agnostic," adding that she believed that "empathy is a superpower and that diversity is not a dirty word" and said she "resist[s] the divide-and-conquer tactics of all toxic hierarchies...Our differences are riches...Our rainbow coalition is unstoppable."[57]
Russell signed the October 2023 Artists4Ceasefire open letter addressed to President Joe Biden during the Israeli retribution on Gaza for the attacks of October 7.[58]
Previous band members:
Awards and nominations
2
3
2
1
1
0
0
6
12
35
