By Jeff Maisey
Up and coming contemporary country music recording artist Alana Springsteen returns to her hometown Saturday, April 25 for a free show on the 24th Street Stage as part of Beachevents’ Oceanfront Concert Series.
Springsteen will showcase a lot of new material from her sophomore album, “I Hope This Helps,” due to be released May 29 nationwide.
The 16 tracks reflect a deep connection to her roots growing up in the rural Pungo section of the city. And unlike many of today’s country artists, Springsteen co-writes all of the songs including “love me anyway,” “sad hour,” and “fight like this.” Yes, all lower case letters.
For Springsteen, writing from the heart and of life experiences are essential and true to herself.
“I wouldn’t be an artist if I wasn’t a songwriter,” said Springsteen. “I started writing music when I was nine years old. Being on stage and in front of people doesn’t come as naturally to me as the songwriting. I just write about my life. It’s like my diary in music form.”
In fact, the entire new album flows like a roadmap of Springsteen’s life over the past two years; the struggles and challenges she’s had. Each track is an entry into that very personal diary.
Now residing outside of downtown Nashville, Alana Springsteen returned to Pungo to shoot music videos for the singles “black sheep” and “note to self.”
The video for “black sheep” shows Springsteen riding in the back of an old Ford Bronco down the coastal backroads of Pungo. There is imagery of old family movies and current views of farming life, riding bikes, skateboarding, and playing in the mud.
“Yeah, ‘black sheep’ is one of my favorite songs on the record,” she said. “I looks back at my childhood and looking at the ways it set me up and gave me things I want to hold on to and didn’t. I didn’t know how to process emotions and I felt misunderstood.
“I always felt like an outlier in my family,” Springsteen continued. “Music was my passion. I told me parents when I was 9 or 10 years old I wanted to be a country music artist and write songs, and I wanted to move to Nashville.
“Most things about me wouldn’t make sense to my family growing up. This journey I’ve been on the last two years is really about accepting me for the first time and choosing to embrace them.”
The house in the music video is her grandparents that she said she grew up in. The scene of the vehicle driving down the scenic Sandbridge Road as return down memory lane for Springsteen.
The Bronco used in the video was donated by a complete stranger.
“We went down to the Pungo Board House, which is five minutes down from the house I grew up in,” Springsteen shared. “I thought I’d pop in and say hi to the owner.”
Behind the skateboard shop is a half-pipe as as they were filming, someone pulled up in a Bronco. Alana and her film crew asked if they could use it the next day for the video.
“They were kind enough to let up use it and drive it around. It ended up being very serendipitous.”
Springsteen’s first single and music video from the album is “note to self,” a tune taking listeners and viewers to her early Pungo roots.
“Growing up in Pungo was a little bit of a mix of structures and escape,” Springsteen explained. “I came from a pretty traditional, tight-knit environment. Both my granddads are pastors. My entire family is super tight-knit; they were my whole world growing up.
“But I also had the ocean five minutes from my house, which felt like a place I could think and be present, and feel a little more honest with myself. I think that contrast really shaped me.
“A lot of my music, especially on this record, lives in that tension between who you’re expected to be and who you actually are and becoming.”