I stumbled upon Alina Grace thanks to the promo for the Tony Mott Exhibition at the Blue Mountains Theatre earlier this year. I thought it was a great idea having a local artist support a photography exhibit, but I hadn’t heard Alinas music prior. 

There’s something really inspiring about an artist who makes compelling music with a minimalist palette, no overcooking anything, and Alina’s approach to her debut album, Hardly Call It My Own, was exactly this. 

She holed up with an SM58 microphone, her guitar and laptop, and some special guests to make a beautiful piece of work that is full of lush moments from start to end, and testament to what can be done with a minimal set up when the quality of the songwriting and performance is deep and strong. 

This live video of the song Marmalade Skies, from our session in The Soup Room, is a glimpse of Alina’s gorgeous live performance featuring Michael Cole (keys), Louis Carroll (guitar), and Zane Stole (sax).

These legends hustled into the studio with a very small window of time on a recent morning, and did a stellar job seasoned with absolutely top tier hilarious banter in between takes, that I kinda wish we recorded as well..ah well, livin and learnin..

Massive credit to visual wizard Dan Coleman for making it all look so pristinely magic. 

Go and get Alinas album on Bandcamp, and jump on her Youtube Channel too (links in her bio) ya good ones. 

• Tim