Allysen Callery

Allysen Callery, an American folksinger from Rhode Island, produces a delicate, austere sound that recalls classic British folk figures such as Sandy Denny and Vashti Bunyan. Growing up surrounded by her parents’ U.K. folk records from the 1960s and 1970s, she taught herself to sing and fingerstyle guitar. Her first release, the self-released 2007 album Hopey, placed her within the New England singer/songwriter community. In 2010 she issued another independent LP, Hobgoblin’s Hat, which gained radio exposure across the U.K. and Australia. Building on that overseas interest, she joined the German imprint Woodland Recordings for the 2011 EP Winter Island, thereby reaching listeners throughout Europe. The following year brought the EP The Summer Place and a return visit to Germany for her second European tour. Mumblin’ Sue, her third full-length album, appeared in 2013 on both sides of the Atlantic. Working with Rhode Island musician and producer Bob Kendall, she taped a session for Folk Radio U.K. that surfaced as a 2014 EP containing original material plus a rendition of the traditional British folk piece “Blackwater Side,” while also adding faint psychedelic shadings to her style. In the same year she made her first appearance at Austin’s SXSW festival.