A singer-songwriter and bass player based out of Seattle, Abbey Blackwell is probably best known as a member of the current line-up of Alvvays. Back in 2021, Abbey made her first steps as a solo artist, with the debut EP, Other Lives, a collection of tracks inspired by American poets and short-story writers. For her debut long-player, out next month via Ruination Record Co, Abbey once again dips her toe into the perspectives of others, working on the basis that our own morals and consciousness are shaped by the experiences of others. The record’s title, My Maze, takes from the idea of the mind as, “a maze with so many dead-ends”, where, “you’re always banging your head against a wall”. Ahead of the release, today Abbey is sharing the latest single from My Maze, Meet Me.

On Meet Me, Abbey forgoes her usually favoured bass, instead allowing her folk-inspired acoustic guitars and vocals to do the work, along with some wonderfully atmospheric flashes of richly layered saxophone courtesy of the improvisational jazz musician, Neil Welch. Discussing the inspiration behind the track, Abbey notes Meet Me, “is a snapshot of any of the countless evenings that I’ve spent at shows and bars, just waiting to go home. I think fondly of these times, surrounded by chosen family in familiar settings”.

There’s a timelessness to Abbey’s music here, her dextrous finger-picked guitars and swirling layered vocals bringing to mind everyone from folk greats like Vashti Bunyan and Karen Dalton through to modern contemporaries like Andy Shauf and Shannon Lay. As the saxophones arrive they seem to add a gentle layer of fuzz, the warm buzz of an emptied glass in audio form, as they gently distort the whole feel of the piece.

Amongst the luxurious feel of the backing, Abbey’s lyrics seem to sit with a certain push-and-pull, the pressure of socialising, “drained by conversation but unable to be alone, drawn to edges waiting for a moment to go home”, playing off against a desire to escape into familiar comfort, “meet me here by my side, close and right on cue. Treat me like I’m a child, hand held, pulled from the room”. As with the record it is lifted from, Meet Me is a fine example of Abbey Blackwell’s ability to find connection without falling into the trope of the confessional singer-songwriter, humanity shining instead through her understanding of others and the shared feelings that connect us without us even realising they are.

My Maze is out July 7th via Ruination Record Co. For more information on Abbey Blackwell visit https://www.abigailblackwell.com/.