If you ask her, the only reason Bekkah McAlvage ever even took up the guitar in the first place was because her friends were in a country band and she needed something to do around the campfire at night while working on Forest Service wilderness trail crews.  If you ask her friends from that country band, they claim they taught her 4 or 5 chords and saw her off for a summer of work and when she came back out of the wilderness, dusty and trail tired, she had a couple dozen songs under her belt and had officially caught the music bug. Either way, it was the start of something that couldn't be stopped and has only grown in depth over the years. 

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Initially focused on Americana-oriented singer-songwriter material, McAlvage eventually branched out into bluegrass and took deep dives into traditional American folk music as well as early country. During this time she continued to write and play mainly as a duo with her singing partner, Sage Meadows, as The Maybe Sometimes. 

 

McAlvage has periodically taken years off from playing in public, but she has never left her music behind. In addition to being a musician she is also a public school teacher. "The year or so of going through grad school and then starting my teaching career was really hard core," she says. "I figured if I could make it through that, I could do just about anything. Playing music just for myself actually helped me through that period quite a bit. It's so cathartic."

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She plays relentlessly, traveling to far flung mountain and coastal towns throughout the region both as a solo performer and with the all-women bluegrass band she performs with, The Rosa Lees. While her core remains bound to connecting with other musicians she meets and befriends through music, she also loves to connect with her audience through the shared experience of live performance. 

 

When people talk about why they like her music, they talk about an energy in her singing and playing that is compelling, forceful even. Yet she is able to draw upon more tender topics as well, handling them with sensitivity and emotion. She recently recorded her first solo record, Madrona, which was produced and engineered by Aaron Reed, from The Brothers Reed. The album presents her selection of original songs as a testament to the durability of broken hearts, filtered through lonesome country sounds of pedal steel, fiddle, banjo, and sweet harmonies. 

​

If you ask her, the only reason Bekkah McAlvage ever even took up the guitar in the first place was because her friends were in a country band and she needed something to do around the campfire at night while working on Forest Service wilderness trail crews.  If you ask her friends from that country band, they claim they taught her 4 or 5 chords and saw her off for a summer of work and when she came back out of the wilderness, dusty and trail tired, she had a couple dozen songs under her belt and had officially caught the music bug. Either way, it was the start of something that couldn't be stopped and has only grown in depth over the years. 

​

Initially focused on Americana-oriented singer-songwriter material, McAlvage eventually branched out into bluegrass and took deep dives into traditional American folk music as well as early country. During this time she continued to write and play mainly as a duo with her singing partner, Sage Meadows, as The Maybe Sometimes. 

 

McAlvage has periodically taken years off from playing in public, but she has never left her music behind. In addition to being a musician she is also a public school teacher. "The year or so of going through grad school and then starting my teaching career was really hard core," she says. "I figured if I could make it through that, I could do just about anything. Playing music just for myself actually helped me through that period quite a bit. It's so cathartic."

​

 

She plays relentlessly, traveling to far flung mountain and coastal towns throughout the region both as a solo performer and with the all-women bluegrass band she performs with, The Rosa Lees. While her core remains bound to connecting with other musicians she meets and befriends through music, she also loves to connect with her audience through the shared experience of live performance. 

​

 

When people talk about why they like her music, they talk about an energy in her singing and playing that is compelling, forceful even. Yet she is able to draw upon more tender topics as well, handling them with sensitivity and emotion. She recently recorded her first solo record, Madrona, which was produced and engineered by Aaron Reed, from The Brothers Reed. The album presents her selection of original songs as a testament to the durability of broken hearts, filtered through lonesome country sounds of pedal steel, fiddle, banjo, and sweet harmonies.

 

You can find the album, Madrona, on all music platforms.