By Kyle Marshall, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A Burlington singer/songwriter who has also travelled the Toronto and London music scenes is returning home and making her debut at Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC) on Sunday afternoon.
Allie Reddon will be performing at the Community Studio Theatre at BPAC along with Fin Wall and The Commune, and multi-Juno nominated singer/songwriter Royal Wood.
Reddon lived in Burlington from when she was only a few weeks old, picking up music when she was young. She played piano until about grade four or five, when School of Rock starring Jack Black came out, piquing her interest in playing other instruments.
Not long after that, she approached her parents about learning to play the bass guitar, but they wanted her to commit to another year playing the piano to ensure she was serious about music. She eventually began taking bass guitar lessons at Capstone Music.
The rest of her immediate family isn’t musical but has always been very supportive of her interests, no matter what they have been.
Reddon continued to pursue her passion for playing music through elementary and middle school, but high school was when she started to get into writing.
Once she left Burlington and took off to Guelph for university, that’s where Reddon said her music career began to change and grow.
“When I got to university that’s when I just kind of started to understand what building a music community really meant and getting to know different venues and organizers and musicians and people to jam with and people to work with,” she said.
“So I’d say at Guelph is where my understanding for what it meant to be a part of a music community really came together.”
She ran the on-campus open mic and gigged around with an old roommate, and then once she finished her undergraduate degree, Reddon moved on to Toronto. It was her first time in a big city, though, and without the structure of the university community to pull her towards music, she had to seek it out herself.
The COVID-19 pandemic followed soon after, posing obvious challenges. Once things started to open back up, a lot was going on in the city musically, and she got to know members of the music community who ended up being good friends and mentors, including the band members that she plays full band gigs with, one of whom she has known since high school.
Reddon describes her style as indie folk-rock/pop and she loves classic female singer/songwriters from a folky, country perspective, like Grammy winners Emmylou Harris and Joni Mitchell.
She also takes a lot of inspiration for how her music sounds from 90s female rock artists, such as Sheryl Crow and the late Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries.
“I just feel like I’ve always found myself listening to and writing within sort of the indie folk-rock area, so other bands, like Wilco and stuff, those are big inspirations and draws for me,” Reddon explained. “One of my current favourites from the past five years or so has been the band Big Thief. I’m a big Big Thief fan and find a lot of inspiration in their music too.”
“I think folk music tells a story in such a beautiful way and I would say that in my songwriting I’m trying to connect emotionally to the people and the places that have meant a lot to me and bring those forward in my music.”
She admits that her style is something she is still developing.
“I think when you start as an acoustic singer/songwriter and then lean into a full band sound, your sound can kind of change a little bit,” she continued. “And I’ve really sort of enjoyed in the past year and a half collaborating with some of the people in the Toronto community and playing my first gig with a drummer and realizing how different things can sound when there’s a group of people bringing that music to life.”
“So I feel like my sound used to be very acoustic folk singer/songwriter and has sort of evolved in the last year to be a bit more of an indie folk-rock or indie folk-pop type sound.”
Bringing those musical stories to life can be a process, a lot of times drawing from personal experiences, and one of Reddon’s favourite places to craft her tunes is in nature. She admits she doesn’t camp all the time, but being able to get away from the city and disconnect can make her very introspective.
Being surrounded by that natural beauty helps her feel at peace but also humbled by where she is. It gives her time to sit down and think.
“When I think, I feel, and when I feel, I write,” she said.
One that she is especially proud of is a song called “Shotgun,” which is something she wrote over the summer about going on a road trip with her dog, a two-year-old labradoodle named Bowie.
The song also touches on dreaming about where she may end up, but not knowing where that’s going to be — and having to be okay with the change that will come with whatever the future may bring.
She is also proud of the title track to her latest EP called Root Rot, another song about growth that she wrote while going through a fairly big breakup.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself and that song was just really about getting past what had happened and growing from it, and really digging my roots deep down into something new and being okay with sort of uprooting my life and trying to grow elsewhere.”
Reddon is used to getting her playing experiences in taverns and bars, with some of her favourites in Toronto being Dakota Tavern, Handlebar in Kensington Market, and The Cameron House on Queen Street.
She and her band have also been fortunate enough to play at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern.
“Just a roomful of people who are out for a good time and who are willing to give you some attention and intimacy,” Reddon explained. “In a room like that and when the vibe is right and people are feeling what they’re hearing, it’s a really special shared experience, so I love a good small venue.”
She’s also played at the Richmond Tavern and a place called Holy Diver, small venues in London, where she now resides while going to teachers’ college at Western University.
The London music scene is still new to her, so she is dipping her toes in by playing solo for now.
But Reddon’s performance at BPAC will be her first in a venue of that size and she is excited and ready to take it on.
It’s also one of the rare occasions where she gets to play for her hometown fans.
If an event comes up or someone from school or the community decides to reach out and wants to book her for a gig, that’s usually how she ends up back home, crashing at her parents’ place.
“It’s just such a wonderful feeling to play for people that you’ve grown up around and that know you and kind of know your journey as a musician too,” Reddon said.
“So yeah, it’s really special.”
The show starts at 4 p.m. and tickets are still available at https://burlingtonpac.ca/events/live-and-local-mar-10/.
