Alyssa Bonagura Announces New Album america’s backroads
Accomplished singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Alyssa Bonagura has announced a new album America’s Backroads for release on June 5 via Lookout Mountain Records. Pre-order HERE and gain exclusive pre-sale ticket access to the June headline tour.
America’s Backroads comprises 13 tracks recorded in Nashville, all co-written and produced by Alyssa, and features multi-Grammy award-nominated blues titan Joe Bonamassa. The album includes co-writes with hit songwriters Jeffrey Steele (Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts), David Sneddon (Lewis Capaldi), Theo Hutchcraft (Hurts), and is a collection of songs that showcase her musicality as a guitar player and singer, as well as the storytelling of her unique life experiences touring the backroads of America.
Explaining the origins of her new record, the multi-hyphenate musician shared: “I’ve been waiting 10 years to make this album. Being an independent artist is not easy. It takes a long time and a lot of hard work to save up for 1 day in the studio with the A-list Nashville players that you dream of working with.
For Christmas in 2023 I told my parents I thought it would be really special if instead of buying each other gifts, we pooled together our money towards hiring a studio with our favourite musicians and engineers to make some music together as a family; and that’s exactly what we did!
I recorded 9 of the songs on this album in one day at the historic Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, with Grammy award winning engineer Drew Bollman and CMA and ACM award winning musicians that are my dear friends. Some of the songs are new that I’ve written about my time in the UK, like “Life is a Road” and “Old Friends”, and some of the songs are over 10 years old, like “Circles,” “America’s Backroads," and “Hippies & Gypsies” that were songs about my life I never got to record and release myself. I feel so grateful to have produced this record the way I always wanted to, and to finally be getting these songs out to the fans that have heard them at my live shows. They say good things take time - now I truly know why."
Alyssa releases autobiographical first single “Hippies and Gypsies” on Friday 20 February and reveals the story behind the track: ““Hippies & Gypsies” is a song about a guitar I found in a pawn shop in Mitchell, South Dakota. I was on my way to a show in Montana with my parents and when we stopped for gas about 10 hrs outside of Livingston, the woman at the gas station was telling us we should really see the Corn Palace before we left.
Mom and I were hesitant to take a detour as we had been driving for about 2 days already from Nashville, but we gave in when my dad said he really wanted to go and decided to check it out.
Once we got there, we realised the Corn Palace was closed, but next to it was a vintage store and a pawn shop. My dad has always had a sixth sense when it comes to finding guitars in pawn shops and so of course, he looked at me and said, “C’mon let’s go in, I bet we’ll find a guitar!” And sure enough, hanging on the wall was an all original 000-18 Martin Guitar from 1963. Original hang tag from Martin, original case, and not a scratch on it. I asked the man if I could play it, and the rest is history.
This song is the story of finding it, and realising that life isn’t about the destination, it’s about thejourney and making sure to stop along the way because you never know what you may find.”
In celebration of the release of America’s Backroads, Alyssa will embark upon an 8-date headline UK tour on June 10. Full details coming soon. From February 17 to March 1, she will be on the road as special guest of Kezia Gill with shows in Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester, Norwich, London, Portsmouth, Bristol. Tour | Discover Tours Now — Alyssa Bonagura
America’s Backroads comprises 13 tracks recorded in Nashville, all co-written and produced by Alyssa, and features multi-Grammy award-nominated blues titan Joe Bonamassa. The album includes co-writes with hit songwriters Jeffrey Steele (Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts), David Sneddon (Lewis Capaldi), Theo Hutchcraft (Hurts), and is a collection of songs that showcase her musicality as a guitar player and singer, as well as the storytelling of her unique life experiences touring the backroads of America.
Explaining the origins of her new record, the multi-hyphenate musician shared: “I’ve been waiting 10 years to make this album. Being an independent artist is not easy. It takes a long time and a lot of hard work to save up for 1 day in the studio with the A-list Nashville players that you dream of working with.
For Christmas in 2023 I told my parents I thought it would be really special if instead of buying each other gifts, we pooled together our money towards hiring a studio with our favourite musicians and engineers to make some music together as a family; and that’s exactly what we did!
I recorded 9 of the songs on this album in one day at the historic Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, with Grammy award winning engineer Drew Bollman and CMA and ACM award winning musicians that are my dear friends. Some of the songs are new that I’ve written about my time in the UK, like “Life is a Road” and “Old Friends”, and some of the songs are over 10 years old, like “Circles,” “America’s Backroads," and “Hippies & Gypsies” that were songs about my life I never got to record and release myself. I feel so grateful to have produced this record the way I always wanted to, and to finally be getting these songs out to the fans that have heard them at my live shows. They say good things take time - now I truly know why."
Alyssa releases autobiographical first single “Hippies and Gypsies” on Friday 20 February and reveals the story behind the track: ““Hippies & Gypsies” is a song about a guitar I found in a pawn shop in Mitchell, South Dakota. I was on my way to a show in Montana with my parents and when we stopped for gas about 10 hrs outside of Livingston, the woman at the gas station was telling us we should really see the Corn Palace before we left.
Mom and I were hesitant to take a detour as we had been driving for about 2 days already from Nashville, but we gave in when my dad said he really wanted to go and decided to check it out.
Once we got there, we realised the Corn Palace was closed, but next to it was a vintage store and a pawn shop. My dad has always had a sixth sense when it comes to finding guitars in pawn shops and so of course, he looked at me and said, “C’mon let’s go in, I bet we’ll find a guitar!” And sure enough, hanging on the wall was an all original 000-18 Martin Guitar from 1963. Original hang tag from Martin, original case, and not a scratch on it. I asked the man if I could play it, and the rest is history.
This song is the story of finding it, and realising that life isn’t about the destination, it’s about thejourney and making sure to stop along the way because you never know what you may find.”
In celebration of the release of America’s Backroads, Alyssa will embark upon an 8-date headline UK tour on June 10. Full details coming soon. From February 17 to March 1, she will be on the road as special guest of Kezia Gill with shows in Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester, Norwich, London, Portsmouth, Bristol. Tour | Discover Tours Now — Alyssa Bonagura
