[Cover photo credit to Yiota Katsaitis]
Singer/songwriter Alicia Blue has shares her new single “Rose of Tennessee,” the next chapter from her debut album, Country Desire, which was Produced by 4x Grammy-winner Shooter Jennings and out August 28, 2026. “Rose of Tennessee” changes up the traditional Appalachian murder ballad, “reimagining the song’s narrator as an anti-hero in love.”
Alicia Blue says on the new single:
I love old country and folk tunes filled with all that good stuff, like death, murder and infidelity. The darker and sadder they are, the more they do it for me. ‘Lily Of The West’ is an old traditional song that greatly inspired ‘Rose of Tennessee,’ although I flipped things around a bit. Rose is the anti-hero full of strength, chaos and seduction. Her self-awareness is what makes her so worthy. Aubrey Richmond brought out that Appalachian sound with the riff on her fiddle that lets you know something ominous is coming. It’s also the hook that makes the ‘Rose of Tennessee,’ whoever she may be, so memorable and forever in our minds.
Country Desire navigates themes of “longing, consequence and control.” After Shooter Jennings discovered Alicia Blue’s early demos, he agreed to make the album after their first meeting, with no label and no budget. Their sessions at Hollywood’s Sunset Sound studio enlisted players including Jay Bellerose on drums (Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, Ray LaMontagne), Brian Whelan on keys and textures (Dwight Yoakam), Ted Russell Kamp on bass (Sturgill Simpson, Tanya Tucker) and Greg Leisz on pedal steel (Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton), alongside Alicia’s guitarist Alex Labrie.
What resulted was a record “obsessed with desire — not as fantasy, but as a force that distorts, drives and dismantles.”
On its inspiration, Alicia shares:
I’d say a lifetime of parts of myself that came to the surface, that needed airtime, the spotlight, so they could stop sitting in the driver’s seat. Parts that wanted the rush of a poetic life, at the cost of personal power and stability.
Alicia Blue is on the road this summer with her new music. She will be making stops in Illinois, Wisconsin and more.
Tour Dates:
July 5 – Berwyn, IL – American Music Festival
July 6 – Yorkville, IL – The Law Office Pub & Music Hall
July 7 – Rockford, IL – The Music Box
July 8 – Oshkosh, WI – Becket’s
July 9 – Sheboygan, WI – Levitt AMP Sheboygan Music Series
September 6 – New Braunfels, TX – Gruene Hall *
October 4 – Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy +
# with Charley Crockett
* with Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Marfa
+ with Robert Ellis
