Della Mae w/ Ali Sperry
at The Iron Horse
Friday, May 23rd 2025
Show: 7:00pm
Tickets Starting At: $30
includes all fees
Della Mae is a GRAMMY-nominated all-woman string band featuring founding members Celia Woodsmith (lead vocalist/guitarist) and 2-time Grand National champion fiddle player Kimber Ludiker, along with guitarist Avril Smith, and two-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year Vickie Vaughn.
Hailing from across North America, and reared in diverse musical styles, Della Mae is one of the most charismatic and engaging roots bands touring today. They have traveled to over 30 countries spreading peace and understanding through music. Their mission as a band is to showcase top female musicians, and to improve opportunities for women and girls through advocacy, mentorship, programming, and performance.
Their live shows are foot-stomping, crowd-pleasing riots, full of the kind of high-octane instrumental skills that the band – now in its twelfth year and its third incarnation – was always intended to showcase. - The Guardian
Ali Sperry, when faced with a year of trauma, racial reckoning, and downright worldwide existential crisis, did what she has always done — turned inward and wrote songs that channeled, mirrored and ultimately DISTILLED those cultural currents — distilled is the operative word, here, as she and her producer, Jamie Dick, wisely avoid long-form folk indulgence for streamlined contours and razor hooks that feel more rock/pop than folk, and are fairly begging for a decent car stereo and an open road.
Ali, in her singing and writing, is the people’s champ of the “less is more" ethos. There is a slight echo of Laurel Canyon in the sonics of the record, and, always, the confident under-singing of a woman who knows her words and melodies will happily do the heavy lifting.
She and Jamie have brought in an absolute murderers' row of beloved Nashville players, including Jen Gunderman, Audley Freed, Sadler Vaden, Joe Pisapia, Owen Biddle, Kai Welch, Kristin Weber, Rich Hinman, and a slew of other bright lights. It's a testament to both their instincts and their respect for Sperry’s presence and voice, that it never feels like a cavalcade of assembled star-turns, but a real love-in of massively talented musical souls. Jamie Dick’s production artfully maintains the connective tissue from song to song, and always gives pride of place to Sperry’s voice and truth telling.
Raised by musician/Transcendental Meditation-teacher parents in Fairfield, Iowa, music has been a constant thread throughout Sperry’s life and was the driving force that brought her to Nashville in 2009. She is such a beloved presence around Nashville -co-writing, teaching yoga or lending a listening ear to friends in high-end coffee shops or low-end dives … who knows how much the world will be able to get her away for extended touring…..we can hope. Nevertheless, this is a record that should quietly find its way into a lot of needy hearts.
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