Gabrielle Lovelace

A vista of mountain peaks, trees and sky were never more than a window away as Gabrielle Lovelace was growing up in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. If the mystic Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains formed the backdrop for her childhood, music created the soundtrack. The Southeast native was raised in a musical household. Her father is a musician, and her mother works in the music business. So, it was only natural that Lovelace would organically be drawn to melodies and lyrics. “I wrote songs in lieu of keeping a journal growing up,” she reminisces.

A true songwriter’s songwriter, Lovelace began crafting songs in elementary school. Now, with degrees in both English and creative writing, her lifelong reverence for words is evident. When you first soak in her music, you realize she possesses more than an appreciation for literature or a solid turn-of-phrase. A deep thinker with a quick wit and contagious effervescent joy, she is wise beyond her years. In her songs, she asks cavernous questions worth pondering and follows threads of reflections that provide glimpses of her becoming.

After years of experiencing persistent chronic pain and extreme fatigue, she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. While pursuing a path toward healing, music became her solace. “I feel like God really used that time to go, ‘It’s just you and Me right now. Let’s prioritize this relationship before you go and do everything else.’ I might not have the relationship with Him that I have if I hadn’t been forced to slow down and take my time during that season,” Lovelace reflects. “Oftentimes, things that feel like setbacks are really just God’s unorthodox way of setting you up for something you can’t foresee.”

The unexpected isolation also gave the budding songstress more space to devote to her craft. The result is a collection of songs that introduce her rich alto to the world. While her voice and accompanying persona belie her age, anchor track “Somewhere Between” reminds listeners she’s still a young adult attempting to find her way in the world.

“For the longest time, I’ve felt like I’m stuck in the blank page between two chapters,” Lovelace articulates. “I can feel it turning, I can feel the progression of the story; but until now there has been nothing clear about it. This song is my way of saying I feel stuck in the middle of these two seasons — between childhood and adulthood.”  

Drawing on life experiences, her songs boast a unique lyrical touch, and her music conjures comparisons to classic artists like Karen Carpenter and Joni Mitchell. Whether she’s delving into philosophical questions with no straightforward answers, making astute observations about coming of age or melding a bold lyric with a cinematic string-laced melody, Lovelace remains true to who she is: an ambitious dreamer, a grounded believer, a natural poet and a gifted storyteller.

Her theology and her personality simultaneously find their way into her songs — an intersection of both understanding and escape.

“Music not only meets you where you are, it also takes you somewhere new. It takes you beyond yourself, and you can see through the eyes of the person who wrote the song or feel what they were feeling when they wrote it. It’s like a superpower,” she observes. “I don’t know anyone who can fully harness it, but you can try, and that’s what I want to do.”