genre country

Since releasing her first project, 2021’s Stones, country singer-songwriter Allie Colleen has been focused on building her own career and putting her own musical talents and vision at the forefront. She’s toured with Jelly Roll and Lee Brice and issued songs like “Halos and Horns” and “Tattoos.”

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But on her new five-song EP, Sincerely, Rolling Stone, she’s pulling back the curtain, revealing every facet of her life and personality.

She crafted Sincerely, Rolling Stone by turning to a close-knit group of friends and fellow songwriters, including Lockwood Bar, Megan Barker, Eric Dodd, Stephen Hunley, John Kraft and Craig Wilson.

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She wrote “Rolling Stone (Sincerely),” the first song written for the project, with Hunley, Dodd and Connor Sweet after coming off the road in 2021. The song sheds light on how having a fanbase who intimately knows an artist can bring immense joy for the act, but also carry with it an emotional weight for artists who are always on the move.

“It’s like Allie Colleen’s ‘Turn the Page.’ It’s my road song,” Colleen says, referencing Bob Seger’s classic about fame and life on the road.  “It’s just saying, ‘I wish so badly that I could give you guys everything on the planet and be that, because you put artists on a pedestal, but I can’t.’ I champion Ashley McBryde, and to Ashley, that’s probably a little heavy — because I know I’m not the only person who has put this artist on a pedestal, whose music has saved me in seasons of my life. I’m very lucky to get that as an artist from certain people in my audience as well. So ‘Rolling Stone’ lands on [the lyric], ‘I want to be your rock, and I’m sorry that I’m not — sincerely your Rolling Stone.’ It’s my little sincerity message to my audience and to anyone who’s cared, especially the people who have followed me throughout the last couple of years.”

Sincerely, Rolling Stone also marks the first time Colleen has released a song inspired by her relationship with her father, Garth Brooks.

“Household Name,” which she wrote with Hunley and Dodd, opens with a roll of thunder, which may have some music fans instantly drawing ties to Brooks’ own 1991 two-week Country Airplay hit “The Thunder Rolls.” (“I listened to 47 minutes of consecutive thunder pre-roll to pick that out, and I think it’s perfect,” Colleen says).

“I write about my mamas all the time,” Colleen says, referring to her mother Sandy Mahl and her stepmother, Trisha Yearwood. “I have so many mama songs out there for both of my moms, and that always poses this silly question in the back of people’s brains — ‘What do you feel about your dad?’ And I’m like, ‘You guys can’t hear a song about my dad and just hear a song about Allie’s dad. You already have such a narrative of that.’ So I’ve never done a dad song.”

Colleen continues, “I’ve always kept those really personal, and just a between-him-and-I kind of thing. This was the first time I felt I could recognize my dad for who he was to me as an artist, and the way that I have never even second-guessed myself as an artist, because I saw it every day. I saw just a crystal-clear example of this is feasible. Someone can work their tail off and do this for a living. My dad has worked his tail off his whole life for everything he has — and that’s why I’m the way that I am, because I want to be just like my dad. I feel like so many people separate us because I don’t involve my family in my career in a commercial way, but I couldn’t be more clear that I am just like my dad, and I’m approaching my career like he did, which is working my tail off. I think ‘Household Name’ gave me an opportunity to say that.”

Elsewhere, “Oklahoma Mountains” touches on the grind any artist faces in building a career, but also includes the lyric, “If there ain’t no mountains in Oklahoma, then why have I always had to climb/ Carrying a shadow on my shoulder” — a line Colleen says she struggled with including.

“’Carrying this shadow on my shoulder’ is one of the lines I fought for a long time on, like, maybe it should just be ‘saddle,’” she explains. “[If someone] sees ‘saddle,’ you’re just going to see that she’s just a hard worker. I don’t want there to be any resentment toward what people think that shadow is. I’ll be honest—Allie is a bigger shadow to herself than her dad is. We all are. I compete against Allie every day; I’ve never even had to compete against Garth, not one time. I hope the listener finds resilience from this song and I hope they recognize what their own mountains are.”

At the time of the interview, Colleen noted that Brooks hadn’t heard the entire project, though she had sent him “Oklahoma Mountains” and “Household Name.”

“We did have that vetting process moment where I want to reflect well on my family,” Colleen. “So, I do send him songs that could ever possibly have anything to do with him. And he’s been nothing but encouraging towards me, and has never been controlling of any narratives at all… he’s excited for me, as well as for this project to come out.”

The EP ends with the ballad ‘Nicotine,’ a co-write with Barker and Bar that likens a tendency to fall hard into relationships to the insatiable pull of nicotine.

“Cigarettes are quick fixes, even if you do 17 a day,” she says. “For me, my quick fix is relationships. That is something that I lean into. So, this was just something I wanted to tuck away in this beautiful little project of sincerity of what my world looks like, between being the daughter that I am, the partner that I am and all of these things that Allie is. I do think ‘Nicotine’ is one of the more commercial songs on the album. The verse itself is literally that eerie time and space where you’re kind of holding your breath, because you got a cig between your lips and you’re about to light your lighter, and then your chorus strikes that, and then the second verse comes in and there’s your exhale.”

Since the beginning of her career, Colleen has had a view toward building her artistry and brand on her own. She studied songwriting at Nashville’s Belmont University and began making connections with fellow writers early on, wading into the Nashville’s co-writing circles — something she says has been an immense blessing, but also a challenge.

“I came to this town as a solo writer, and I’m so happy in my co-writing world, but I would be lying to say that Nashville didn’t discourage individual writing for me,” she relates. “I was going to publishing meetings and they were saying, ‘Can you write well in other rooms with our people?’ And I think that was because I was so young. I think it made sense, honestly, at the time for my age, but I think 28-year-old Allie is still holding on to, ‘Was I a good enough writer by myself?’”

Her next project will aim to answer that question, with Colleen setting out to write every song on the album alone.

“I’m hoping I’m brave enough to write the whole thing by myself, and again, just show up for Allie as a writer and prove that I’m the same writer that showed up in this town,” she says, “just better, because of my co-writers — but also because of the work that I’ve done on my own this last year of writing by myself again. I’m excited, but also a little scared because I don’t have anybody to blame for that project. Every creative decision is on you when it’s an all-solo thing.”

Still, that challenge falls squarely in line with her overall mission, which is to unravel the layers of her own perspectives, whether she’s co-writing songs or crafting them by herself — in short, to make sure she’s creating music that she is proud of, regardless of others’ opinions.

“Praise for anything other than authenticity doesn’t matter,” Colleen says.