After devoting the last ten years of her life to making a name for herself in the male-dominated blues rock music scene, guitar trailblazer Ally Venable is set to release her fourth full-length album, Money & Power, on April 18 via Ruf Records. Having just finished up her run on the Experience Hendrix Tour, Venable is now embarking on her headlining Money & Power Tour, shredding her way across the U.S.
Since releasing her debut album at 14, Venable has continued to define herself as a singer, songwriter, and guitar virtuoso in the modern blues scene. In recent years, Venable has become a true master of her craft, harnessing a sultry blues rock artistry and brushing shoulders with the likes of Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. On her upcoming album, Venable was also able to work with blues legends Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Shemekia Copeland.
Ahead of Money & Power, Venable has released four singles, including “Do You Cry,” “Keep Me In Mind,” “Money & Power,” and “Unbreakable.” All four singles showcase every emotive angle of Venable’s musicality as she confronts grief, empowerment and everything in between. More than anything else, Venable wrote Money & Power to tackle misogyny in the music industry, using her powerhouse vocals and fiery Les Paul to be a voice for women both on and off the stage.
Combining a vulnerable grittiness with an unapologetic honesty, Venable is one of blues music’s brightest up-and-comers. As her artistry explores themes of adversity, sorrow and power, Venable’s music is an unrelenting and unforgettable force. Wielding her guitar as a hypnotic and unbreakable weapon, Venable is keeping the blues alive and well for future generations.
Ahead of the release of Money & Power, Venable sat down with Melodic Magazine to discuss her headlining tour, the music industry, and how she hopes to inspire women in her community.
Thank you for taking the time today! You just finished up your run on the Experience Hendrix Tour, how was that tour for you?
It’s like a guitar player’s dream to be a part of anything to do with Hendrix, let alone the Experience Hendrix Tour his family puts it on, and I feel very honored to be a part of it and be alongside some amazing guitar players in the industry. When I played my first show for this tour I was so nervous — and I never get nervous on stage — and I almost felt unworthy to be on stage playing his music because I idolized him so much. But then the feeling of gratefulness overtook my feeling of unworthiness, and the performance looked fine. But [there’s] a lot of emotions, a lot of feelings happening for me right now, especially with doing that tour and then also with my new album I’m putting out as well. A lot of exciting new happenings going on, but I’m here for it.
You mention the new album coming out soon, and you’re also on your headlining Money & Power Tour, which is also very exciting. What are you most looking forward to with this tour?
I’ve been playing my last album for about two years now on the road, and doing a whole new show was exciting for me and my band, because we play so many shows throughout the year. It gets pretty monotonous, so we’re excited to explore the new songs and evolve them while we’re on the road. Also just spreading the message of my new album. I really wanted to write something for the women that come see me. When I think about blues music and the people that came before me that I look up to who are pioneers in the genre, I think of it as protest music in a way. They weren’t afraid to say what they wanted to say, especially at the time that they were all coming up, and that gives me the confidence to say what I want to say and be a voice for a community that may not have a voice. In the last year and a half I’ve been seeing parents bring their daughters to the shows and that’s really inspiring for me too as an artist, because with most blues shows it’s an older crowd — which I’m very appreciative of, but it’s also important and exciting to see a young girl out there I could inspire, even if she doesn’t want to play guitar.
Going off of that, Money & Power has this core theme of amplifying and uplifting women, which I love. What has your personal experience been like as a woman pursuing blues and rock music?
I think that I’ve had a lot more good than bad experiences, especially [because of] the men that have been around me that have supported me, like Mr. Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Sheppard. The community within the genre is very supportive of young, up-and-coming artists, because we the artists want to see this music flourish and be showcased. But I’ve also come across situations, not really from other artists but from other people, where I’m not being taken seriously as an artist. I’ve read comments and heard people say, “She just gets attention because she’s pretty and she wears these short dresses on stage, she’s not that good at the guitar.” A lot of people don’t see what goes on behind the scenes where I’m doing the groundwork and the things that nobody else wants to do. I guess they don’t really need to see that, but I think there’s this assumption that things are handed to women because we’re pretty. And with that mentality you have to work 10 times harder to get respect, which isn’t fair. But I’m proud to be who I am and be a guitar player. I’m just a girl that likes to play guitar at the end of the day.
It’s frustrating that it’s 2025 and women in music are still getting those comments about their appearance or their looks — comments that men wouldn’t usually get.
It’s very frustrating. There was an interview that I did [recently] and one of the questions was asking about what I was wearing on stage. They asked, “Do the sexy dresses you wear stereotype women? How does your male audience feel? How do women feel about what you wear?” I really don’t dress for people. My music is for people, but I dress for myself. I dress however I want to dress and I wear what I want to wear, because it makes me feel good about how I look. I feel like I would get the same comments if I was wearing anything else. What do they want me to wear, a potato sack onstage? For some reason it’s always commented on, so I’ve learned not to care what other people say about what I’m wearing or what I look like. If I’m good with how I look in the mirror, if I like who I am then that’s good enough for me.
And that’s inspiring to other young girls who might be fans of yours as well.
Yeah. I’m very appreciative of my parents and the way that I was brought up, especially my dad. Because anytime anybody would say, “Ally’s dresses are a little short,” he would say, “Ally can wear whatever she wants to wear.” Coming from my dad, I was really appreciative of that. He would just let me be me.
You started making music at 14, so it’s been some time since releasing your first EP. But how would you say the treatment of women in the industry has changed over the years since you’ve been making music? Has it changed at all?
Well, I don’t know if I can touch on that a lot, because when I first started I was a child, so I wasn’t really aware of certain things like that, like how people should act. I mean, as long as you’re kind and not an asshole, you know? But I guess now that I’m becoming an adult and am still an artist, I’m starting to be more vocal about what I’m experiencing as an adult woman versus when I was a kid playing music, if that makes sense. I didn’t really see it as much when I was a child. I got the kid version of not being taken seriously versus the woman version of not being taken seriously. But again, at that time too, I had a lot of people supporting me when I was first starting out, like other musicians around me that let me play on their sets in between their breaks and other guitar players teaching me different stuff on the guitar.
When you decided to pursue music professionally at 14, were you nervous to do so? Was there any hesitation at all?
I actually didn’t have any hesitation getting into it because I feel like it was just a part of who I was. I sang when I was really little; I sang in church a little bit and I was a real outgoing kid. I just thought music was a way for me to really connect with myself, and then I found my guitar and fell in love with the guitar and blues music. I like to feel my emotions and understand them, and music has allowed me to do that. Especially in the last year. We’ve been playing a bunch of shows, and it got monotonous, and I noticed I started to play for the applause. I knew when people would clap in the show, and I didn’t really like that because once I realized that, I felt like I was playing in my ego. I then switched my perspective and my intention with playing with my band and started playing for the connection versus playing for the applause. I mean, it’s nice to hear people go, “Oh my God, you are amazing.” But you hear that every night and then it starts to fill up a different side of you and you start losing the whole meaning of why you started to play the guitar in the first place. And I’m glad I caught that. That way I can really hone in on why I’m here and what my purpose is.
It’s cool that you’re so introspective and self-aware of how you’re playing and why you’re playing. In what other ways have you grown as a musician over the years?
I feel like I’ve definitely grown as a songwriter. I’ve always liked to write stories, and with Money & Power I really just wanted to be super vulnerable with the songs that I wrote and be me. There’s a song on there called “Do You Cry,” and I was actually showing Jamie Hendrix the video of it and telling her how I wrote the song while I was on the tour last year. I basically wrote a letter to my sadness to get rid of my feelings that I was having, because it was so painful to feel. She said, “When you think about grieving, everybody usually initially thinks about when someone passes away. But there are other grievances that we all go through. Even if the person is still alive and they’re just not with us anymore, all of these things are different forms of grievances that you have to get yourself through.” And that’s what that song is about. I challenge other people to really look at their feelings and face them, even though it may be scary. If you do the work and you really go through it, you’ll come out better on the other side of it. That’s what I really tried to do on this album, not be afraid of people knowing my feelings.
You mentioned earlier how you got into blues music and how, as somebody very in touch with their emotions, the blues really resonated with you. What was it about the blues specifically that you were drawn to so much?
There was one day where I was riding with my dad to school. He would drive me to school every morning and we would listen to different types of music. He had a Stevie Ray Vaughan CD in in the console and I asked to listen to it and I really loved it. It was a Texas Flood CD and I really loved it and Stevie’s voice. My brain wasn’t connecting with the guitar at that point in time that I was listening to Stevie, I just really liked the music and how it felt to me. It was different than anything I’ve listened to up to that point, and I later looked him up on YouTube and I realized he’s this crazy guitar player that can do all this stuff. I was able to sing at the time, and then I got into the guitar that way. I wanted to learn and see if I could do that and play like Stevie too. That’s what got me into learning about who his influences were, and then I learned who Susan Tedeschi was and who Beth Hart was and who Buddy Guy was. All these artists started popping up and it was like a big community of all these different types of people that had their own take on this genre.
You mention all these iconic blues artists, but were there any specific artists that inspired you for this new album coming out?
I really enjoyed collaborating with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Shemekia Copeland on the album. I have been talking with Shemekia around the time that I was writing for this album and she has been super supportive of me and my music. And I know she’s seen and done it all with her music in her career. And I’m just very grateful to have her as a friend also, because sometimes you collaborate with people and then that’s it. But with her she checks on me and calls me. But she inspires me and I wanted to write something for both of us to sing on this on my album. So we did “Unbreakable” together. I try not to listen to certain blues music or other people’s music before I write because I don’t want to subconsciously write something that’s similar or copy somebody by accident. So I don’t really do that, but I am inspired throughout my musical journey. I’ve been really into Erykah Badu and Anderson .Paak. More soul stuff lately.
It’s such a powerful album, and it conveys so many different themes. What do you want listeners to get the most get from listening to the album?
I would just hope that whoever listens to it could make some sort of connection. If they can make a connection with at least something. Maybe they really like the guitar tone, or the lyrics really move them. Or if there’s just one song that they can’t get out of their head, or it reminds them of a situation that they got over, or it gets them through a struggle that they’re facing at this moment or uplifts them and makes them want to pick up the guitar. To just make some sort of connection with the album, I think that would be amazing.
Pre-save Money & Power here.
Buy tickets to see Ally Venable on tour here.
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