PEC Jazz Festival Featuring Ally Cribb

About Ally:

Ally Cribb has been on this earth before. Her voice is heavy with a soul that defies her 20 years.

“Whenever I’m going through something significant in my life, I turn to my piano or guitar and start sorting through feelings of confusion, frustration or wonder and finding the words and music to give them expression.”

She always understood music. It was a gift she inherited from her father who, too, is a musician and a writer. Through her own flair for creative expression and an instinct for conveying sentiments to sonics, when she started singing lessons at the age of eight, Ally never looked back.

Ally’s songwriting strength has always lied with the intimacy she weaves into her exposed lyrics and hypnotic melodies. As a natural empath, Ally Cribb’s experiences have given her songwriting sensitivity and resonance. Just like her heroes Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin and Taylor Swift, what she sings demands to be felt.

Her debut release in 2019, a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” with more than 200,00 views on YouTube, sees the track transformed beyond recognition, swapping guitars for the gravitas of the piano, which brings the song newfound dimensions of vulnerability and strength.

She followed it with Bigger, her first original release, which spoke to her versatility as an artist. It is an anthemic celebration of resilience and resolve in the face of challenge.

That theme played out more fully in Ally’s debut EP, Unbroken. The seven-song collection explores the suffocating grief she experienced suddenly losing her mother during the already profound isolation of the pandemic and the quiet wisdom and perseverance that emerged from that darkness.

Unbroken left an indelible mark on listeners with thousands of streams each week, dozens of media reviews and two topfinalist spots in the 2022 Song Academy Competition’s international category.

“From the depths of uncertainty and loss, through the power of the self and the blessings of tomorrow, Unbroken encapsulates it all – the journey of a life, with all of its complexities and gifts,” wrote one reviewer.

In 2024, her song California, won the grand prize in the Write Out Loud songwriting contest that included a new recording of the song being recorded by a Broadway singer and a live performance in New York.

Now, Ally’s latest EP, speaks with the voice of a maturing songwriter drawing on intimate personal experiences. The richly crafted lyrics weave character-driven narratives of unrequited love, self-reflection and quiet anticipatio.

“I write what I see and feel,” she says. “I hope it can offer some glints of compassion, hope and resilience to anyone who needs them as much as I have.”