Allison August

Melody has defined Allison’s life because she has always been surrounded by music.
Allison is a fourth generation musician who, from childhood, dreamed of joining the family business. She grew up listening to her grandmother’s violin and viola, her grandfather’s cello, and her parents’ pianos. 
Allison’s grandmother was a conductor and orchestra violinist, her grandfather was first chair cellist. Her father taught jazz theory at a University and performed all around Europe, her mother is a concert pianist and celebrated composer. On her father’s side, her grandmother played guitar and sang cowboy songs.
Over more than a century of making music, they have played with some of the greats, talents like Sinatra, Elvis, and the Jackson 5. Allison is proud to have performed and recorded with members of Little Feat, Tower of Power, Parliament Funkadelic, Lenny Kravitz, Lionel Ritchie, and many others.
As a child, she sat through hours of her family’s music lessons, rehearsals, and performances; she wanted to be a part of that world. Allison spent hours lying on the floor with giant headphones on, studying the family vinyl collection. Her favorites were the Beatles, Elton John, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith. From these icons she learned the basics of songwriting; she began writing songs at age 9 and joined her first band at 13.
She became a working musician while still in High School, playing proms, parties and dive bars. Fellow band members snuck her in through the back entrance, where she hid until showtime. In College, she met aspiring musicians Dino Soldo, Bryan Head, and David J Carpenter.  Allison and Dino started the band Barebones, signed with Monster Music and released “For the Mind, Body and Soul” in 1997.
Billboard Magazine July 26, 1997 wrote “This West Coast act does its bid to revive the retro-funk sound of the ‘70s with this slap-happy throwdown, which is fueled by super-tight live instrumentation and Allison [August’s] flexible vocals. Mature minds will find this too tasty for words, while kids may find it a useful history lesson.“ 
In 2010 she came back together with David J Carpenter, Bryan Head, and Dino Soldo to record four new songs.  Encouraged by one of her biggest influences, Paul Barrere of Little Feat; the four songs he agreed to play on became a whole album: “Holy Water”. Also lending their talents are Coco Montoya, Greg Liesz, Josh Smith, and Lance Lopez.
Her songs are inspired by the joys and tribulations of her life: marriage, divorce, motherhood,   but above all, a love of music and hope for the future.