New Jersey-born and Nashville-based singer-songwriter Lucy Isabel is hitting the road in October on tour for a full month of shows, and her travels will see her visiting the Southeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast, as she brings the songs from her most recent album, Rambling Stranger, to life on concert stages. For three of the shows, Isabel will be livestreaming online from surprise locations along the way. (See full tour schedule below.)
“Over the last few years of touring, I’ve often been struck by how different one show can be from the next,” says Isabel. “Sometimes it can be draining, but it always keeps me on my toes. When I decided to plan this tour, the idea was to experience a ton of different types of shows, while also sharing Rambling Stranger with as many people as possible.”
Isabel is touring in support of Rambling Stranger (which came out June 14, 2019). Produced by Jared Anderson and recorded in a series of live, inspired takes, Rambling Stranger shows the full scope of Isabel’s songwriting. These 10 songs are filled with images from an adulthood lived on the run: a shuttered army fort along the Jersey Shore; a mountain range outside of Seattle; a road leading to an unknown destination, promising nothing but the unexpected for anyone willing to take it. And Isabel, of course, can’t resist taking those paths.
Photo Credit: Andrea Morgan
On 2019’s Rambling Stranger, Isabel’s classic-sounding folk croon – that evokes everyone from Brandi Carlile to Judy Collins – shares the spotlight with accordion, keyboards, and numerous stringed instruments throughout. “I was always looking for somewhere else to be,” says Isabel about the album title. “A rambling stranger is who I am to this day, even though I’ve now found a home for myself. My bed is in Nashville. My husband is there. But there’s always a part of me that’s looking to chase down something new, and it keeps me moving.”
Equally inspired by the Americana community of her Nashville home and the boardwalk culture of her native New Jersey, Isabel has been a traveling musician for years, ever since she shelved an acting career in New York City and moved to Tennessee. Living in Nashville motivated her, but it was the road – where she built her audience one show at a time – that sharpened her songwriting. She wrote folk songs, heartland roots-rockers, and acoustic ballads. She wrote about her husband; about the changing landscape of her hometown back east; about the wanderlust that kept her moving night after night, traveling from the listening rooms of America to the pubs of Australia and back again.
All the while, she also made time to visit the recording studio, releasing her first EP, 2016’s Along the Way, within two years of graduating from Yale with a degree in Theater Studies. Another EP, KANE, followed in 2017, stocked with stories about her maternal grandmother’s family. It was during her senior year at Yale that her work with one of the university’s professional a cappella groups prompted her to shift her focus from acting to music.
Lucy Isabel Tour Schedule:
OCT 1 – The 5 Spot, Nashville, TN
OCT 2 – Odeon, Louisville, KY
OCT 3 – The Listing Loon, Cincinnati, OH
OCT 4 – WTSQ The Afternoon Show, Charleston, WV
OCT 4 – Bluegrass Kitchen, Charleston, WV
OCT 5 – The Purple Fiddle, Thomas, WV
OCT 6 – The Purple Fiddle, Thomas, WV
OCT 7 – Sofar DC, Washington, DC
OCT 8 – Hotel RL, Baltimore, MD
OCT 9 – Sofar DC, Washington, DC
OCT 10 – Three Sheets, New Haven, CT
OCT 11 – The Rendezvous, Turners Falls, MA
OCT 12 – Livestream, Rhode Island
OCT 13 – Lucky Dog Surf Co, Sea Bright, NJ
OCT 14 – House Concert, Brooklyn, NY
OCT 15 – Sarah Street Grill, Stroudsburg, PA
OCT 16 – Black Forge Coffee, Pittsburgh, PA
OCT 17 – House Concert, Kalamazoo, MI
OCT 18 – Uncommon Ground Lakeview, Chicago, IL
OCT 19 – Lincoln Wine Bar, Mt Vernon, IA
OCT 20 – Hotel RL, St Louis, MO
OCT 21 – House Concert, Louisville, KY
OCT 22 – WDVX Blue Plate Special, Knoxville, TN
OCT 23 – Livestream, Tennessee
OCT 24 – Thompson House, Indianapolis, IN
OCT 25 – Southside Beer Garden, Winston Salem, NC
OCT 26 – New Groove Artisan Brewery, Spartanburg, SC
OCT 27 – Livestream, South Carolina
OCT 28 – Puckett’s, Nashville, TN
OCT 29 – Blue Canoe, Tupelo, MS
OCT 30 – Kimbro’s, Franklin, TN