For those of you not in the know, Americana singer-songwriter Stacy Antonel has always felt as though she’s on the outside looking in, and judging by the music that view inspires, it must really be something.

“I’ve always just had like a sort of outsider looking in perspective,” Antonel says. “I don’t know, my whole life, even as a child in school, I was just watching everybody trying to figure out — ‘Why is that chick popular? What is happening?’ or ‘I don’t know what to do here. I feel very confused.’”

When her debut full-length, aptly titled Always the Outsider, is released on June 17th, 2022 it will reveal stunningly intricate, cosmically oriented Americana songs that oscillate seamlessly between classic country sounds and floating interstellar qualities.

1. Always The Outsider
2. Karmic Cord
3. Kicking And Screaming
4. Planetary Heartache
5. Heartbroken Tomorrow
6. Absent Captain
7. Texas Last Forever
8. You Can’t Trust Fate
9. I Talk When I’m Nervous
10. Not Looking For Love
11. Better Late Than Never
12. Save Your Breath (bonus track)

With each and every song being carried by Antonel’s versatile and silvery vocal melodies, together with her bold instrumental progressions, as well as plenty of serene and exploratory pedal steel, the album opens on the rollalong title track itself Always The Outsider (which addresses the loneliness and isolation she experienced when she first moved to Nashville) and follows that up with the troubadour-imbibed Karmic Cord, the train-track calling within Kicking And Screaming, the achingly earnest Planetary Heartache and then comes the gently fervent twang of Heartbroken Tomorrow and the beautifully crafted hipsway of Absent Captain.

With the fact that even though each song is embedded with the rich quality and consistent vocals of their creator, in such a way that you would assume that decades of worn out boots trodden down over miles of country roads touring must be where her delivery originates, Antonel has actually only been writing and performing for the past six years, which just makes everything you hear on this album all the more special.

Up next is the elegant gossamer balladry of Texas Last Forever and the mid-tempo rumble of You Can’t Trust Fate and they are in turn followed by the aching yearn within I Talk When I’m Nervous, the playfully orchestrated, guitar-led Not Looking For Love, the album rounding out with the flirtatious countrified funky blues of Better Late Than Never, coming to a close on the CD bonus track, Save Your Breath.

An idiosyncratic artist with a background in classical piano, Stacy Antonel makes jazzy, country-leaning, clever Americana that feels both vintage and hyper-modern at the same time.

Rooted in classic country but influenced by jazz, pop, and R&B, her throwback “country jazz” style conjures the 20s-30s musical era when jazz and country weren’t such disparate genres.

There’s a complex, conversational quality to her lyrics, reminiscent of alt-rocker Courtney Barnett, paired with the effortless, emotive vocal power of country icon Patsy Cline. “I like passionate, full-throated singing,” says Antonel. “I want the notes to burst out of me.”

Now based in Nashville, Antonel is poised to release her Americana debut Always the Outsider, featuring compelling, narrative storylines (taking a page from Willie Nelson’s songbook), agile vocal melodies, and unexpected thematic twists.

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