By MATTHEW STEPHENS

With two enthralling EPs, an original music collection with more than 500,000 streams and counting, and several accolades including winner of the U.S. Write Out Loud contest; 20-year-old Beacher Alexandra (Ally) Cribb is quickly establishing herself as a standout artist with a catalogue of impactful, heartfelt music.

“I write all my own music. Songwriting has always been my favourite part of the whole process. I don’t think that I would be able to really sing at all if I wasn’t able to write my own music and tell my own stories,” Cribb told Beach Metro Community News recently.

In contrast to the average singer/songwriter within her age bracket, Cribb’s music takes storytelling a step further; focusing on relatable narratives which help her to establish an authentically emotional connection to listeners both old and young. The rising indie artist blends sounds of pop, country, classical, and soul to produce music that feels both familiar and uniquely distinct.

“Something I always want to think about when I’m writing songs is how do I take an experience of my own or something that has happened to me and turn it into a story that is going to be relatable to any listener,” she said.

At the core of Cribb’s music are overarching themes of vulnerability, love, introspection, and hope – all of which is anchored under harmonious lyrics that put her paradoxically soft, yet powerful voice front and centre, which is most notable on her many acoustic performances.

“I think it’s a lot easier to be vulnerable when I’m talking about something in song rather than just talking about it in my day-to-day life. And I think it’s been a very important part of my songwriting so far,” said Cribb. “If you’re able to be vulnerable and tell a story, that’s how you’re going to draw listeners in and find people who connect with you and connect with your music.”

Music has been a significant part of Cribb’s life. Since the age of eight, she has been practicing and honing her craft as a musician. Her father (Toronto Star reporter Robert Cribb), who is also a musician and writer, instilled within her what it means to be a storyteller – which she weaves together with a harmonious voice and critical musical techniques to craft quality songs with genuine depth.

“I’m lucky to have a dad who is also a really incredible songwriter and has always had really good music taste. He definitely put me onto some of his favourite albums when I was younger,” said Cribb.

Cribb has lived in the Beach her whole life, near the intersection of Queen and Woodbine. While she studies music and business at Dalhousie University in Halifax, she describes how living in the Beach has shaped the tone of her artistic sound.

“Now that I live in Halifax, it’s the best feeling coming home because we all say that living in the Beaches is kind of like living in a small town within a big city,” said Cribb. “Living in that environment is nice because I get to come home to a quieter place. I’ve written a lot of songs about the feeling of being away for months at a time and then coming home.”

For Cribb, storytelling has always been at the forefront of her creative process. Drawing inspiration from the likes of artists such as Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin and Taylor Swift, her music incorporates her own personal experiences, grounding her sound deeply within the realm of sensitivity and emotional resonance.

“I learned a lot about songwriting just from listening to really great writers like them,” said Cribb. “You can just tell that they put a lot of thought into their craft, and they’ve been working at it for so long.”

Back in 2019, Cribb emerged onto the music scene with a piano cover of Radiohead’s popular hit song Creep, which amassed more than 200,000 views on YouTube and quickly highlighted her ability to think freely and craft unique music.

With her first original release in 2021, titled Bigger, Cribb fully embraced her versatility as an artist with a proficiency in emphasizing underlying messages rooted deeply within her songwriting process. The track delves into the nature of facing adversity and finding resilience from within.

“I started writing Biggerright in the middle of COVID. It was a pretty lonely time for me. My family and I were living at our cottage and Lunenburg, (Nova Scotia) and it really felt like the middle of nowhere. I had a piano in my room that I would sit at every single day because there was nothing else to do, and so I just was writing constantly all the time,” said Cribb.

“I remember I’d I played the piano line of Bigger. I kind of just stumbled across it And I really liked it. I started playing the chords and forming the song, and I called my dad into the room, and I played it for him, and he was a fan. And so, we just kept building on it every day.”

She followed up the single in 2022 with Unbroken;a seven track EP that unearths the suffocating grief of losing her mother while navigating the lonesome isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic – and the strength she found within to overcome hardship. The profoundly vulnerable project earned her two top finalist spots in the 2022 and 2024 Song Academy Competition’s international category.

“All the other songs that were on that EP Unbroken kind of just followed in the next couple of months. I had so much time on my hands that I just felt like I couldn’t stop writing,” said Cribb.

In 2024, Cribb released California, which delves into the inner conflict of giving up on the one you love in order to pursue your dreams. The song won the grand prize in the Write Out Loud songwriting contest and followed up with a revamped recording of the song by Broadway singer Taylor Louderman (Known best for Mean Girls) and a live performance in New York.

Her latest EP, titled Now, is an emotionally vulnerable project that puts Cribb’s experience with relationships on full display. The country inspired EP effectively manifests her affinity for acoustic sets and allows her melodic voice to shine through the soothing sounds of guitar and soft percussion. The project’s modest production allows Cribbs smooth vocals and overarching messages of love, loss, and subsequential revelation, to really shine through on each track.

“All the songs I wrote myself from the age of 16 to 18. I had been writing a lot because I feel like there’s so much growth you go through at that time,” said Cribb. “I wrote about 10 to 15 songs for the EP, and I could only pick five, so the five that I picked were my favourite ones, and the ones I thought would be the most relatable to listeners.”

With each new release, Cribb cements her status as an independent artist who draws from deep personal experiences to establish lasting connections with her listeners.