Blockhouse Valley finds a silver lining in life’s disappointments.
The Americana band embraces the growth and wisdom that comes from personal and professional challenges on It’s Alright.
“A lot of it was the decompression of our days and things that were weighing on us,” said Ashleigh Glass-Cooper, Blockhouse Valley’s vocalist, about the Metro Detroit band’s latest album.
“It also was thoughts we were having and things that were racing through our minds that we were able to capture in those times and hold onto for moments where we could make something better out of them.”
Glass-Cooper traded those thoughts and feelings with husband, musical partner, and mandolinist-guitarist Cody Cooper during their daily commutes home from work.
“It wasn’t that we sat down and said, ‘Let’s write songs about this,’” she said. “We tend to talk about [things] on our commutes, and our brains get a chance to decompress in ways that we don’t always set time apart for otherwise.”
Those conversations laid the groundwork for It’s Alright, which features eight tracks filled with soulful vocals, clever lyrics, and infectious instrumentation.
“We gave them a structure, a context, a musical home that we could potentially share with other people,” Glass-Cooper said. “And we think [the songs] are really relatable because we don’t want to dwell on all of the negativity. We don’t want to give it more power through what we’ve done, but we do want to provide that release.”
To learn more, I spoke with Glass-Cooper and Cooper about the album, its themes, and the creative process behind it.
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