Primarily known as a bassist with groups like Grammy-nominated band Alvvays and surf pop band La Luz, Abbey Blackwell (Seattle, WA, USA) is focusing her energies on writing for solo guitar and voice.

Since making her home in Seattle, WA in 2009, moving down from Everett, WA, Abbey has enmeshed herself in the myriad scenes there via the University of Washington. Moving between avant-garde, jazz, classical, rock, and pop, Abbey has been busy gigging as a bassist for a decade, playing with Seattle’s best and beyond: including La Luz, Wayne Horvitz, Macklemore, Jonathan Wilson, Cassandra Jenkins, and Shana Cleveland. However in the last handful of years, she has begun to focus more on composing and leading groups of her own.

Her first foray into leading a band was with Rae: an instrumental trio that released the record Internal Volume in August 2020. This group features Ronan Delisle (guitar) and Evan Woodle (drums) and Blackwell on bass in a wild ride of group improvisations, sweet harmonies and off-kilter melodies. Shortly before the release of Internal Volume, she was recognized as Seattle’s Emerging Artist of the Year as a part of the Earshot Golden Ear Awards.

Since Rae, Abbey has moved into writing songs that feature the voice and guitar (a time-tested combination). Under her name, she has released an EP called Other Lives (2021) and most recently an LP on Ruination Records titled My Maze (2023), which ended up being one of Gorilla vs Bear’s top albums of 2023. Her songwriting calls back to the lyrical, hanging melodies of Sibylle Baier and Linda Perhacs, with angular, geometric chord progressions that lean in satisfying directions. Rendered through a self-assured and distinctive musical vocabulary, her songs offer an inspired and idiosyncratic take on “personal” songwriting, with insights into the central pressure points of human experience that run deeper than transparently confessional.

Her newest release Big Big Motion is out everywhere now.

Outside of performing and recording, she teaches private lessons in person in Seattle and online.

Abbey holds a master's degree in Jazz and Improvised Music and a bachelor’s of music in Double Bass Performance from the University of Washington.

*All linked recordings feature Abbey’s playing

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