Culture
Jessica Willis Fisher talks ‘Blooming’ and Alice Peacock tour after Ireland’s Your Roots Are Showing
By: Ian Saint
Posted on:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOUB) — Fresh off Ireland’s Your Roots Are Showing folk music conference in Belfast last month, Jessica Willis Fisher brings its collaborative spirit on tour with Alice Peacock to Natalie’s Grandview (945 King Ave., Columbus) on Saturday.
“It’s two folky ladies with guitars, storytelling through songs,” Fisher said. “I’ll do my body of work, she’ll do hers; she brings a keyboard, I bring my fiddle. It’s fun to harmonize and play with her.”
Fisher’s storytelling is nothing short of compelling. The eldest daughter and primary songwriter of The Willis Clan family band released two solo albums — 2023’s Brand New Day and 2025’s Blooming, produced by Ben Fowler — that encapsulate her healing journey toward transformation and independence since her father’s horrific child rape conviction in 2017, and falling in love with husband Sean Fisher. The albums followed her 2022 autobiography, Unspeakable: Surviving My Childhood and Finding My Voice.
Fisher spoke to WOUB’s Ian Saint after they attended Your Roots Are Showing (YRAS). A transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.
IAN SAINT: Welcome back from Belfast. How was YRAS?
JESSICA WILLIS FISHER: Really special. Belfast is Nashville’s sister city, so it’s a fun reunion of friends and people in Nashville that I’m aware of but haven’t met — we meet in Ireland, which is hilarious. The Folk iN Fusion show is really cool. Definitely one of those shows where you’re overwhelmed by all the (legendary) people participating, like Jim Lauderdale and Amy Grant. Wyatt Ellis and his band were MVPs, playing with (nearly) everybody — working hard from rehearsal, soundcheck, to the show (directed by Brandon Bush). And then new (to me) people… I was paired with (Ireland’s) Clare Sands — just being next to her as she’s doing her solo piece, stomping her foot and singing while she’s playing viola, was extremely moving and powerful.
The rest of YRAS is a conference with workshops, showcases, and panels. Definitely made new friends and had late-night jams. I love (Ireland’s) singer/songwriter, Niall McCabe; I connected with him two years ago at YRAS and we’ve become friends. It was fun to see and jam with him (again). I was on a panel about the Grand Ole Opry (that included) Amy Grant, a huge honor. YRAS plays a really important part in (learning) the business, a thing we all have to interact with in our own ways — but it’s ultimately community.
I enjoyed your YRAS performance of Find a Lover from Blooming, which reminds me of Dolly Parton — e.g. Love Is Like a Butterfly — with your vocal range and its flow.
FISHER: Thank you; (the comparison to) Dolly is a huge compliment. That song is a fun example of different inspirations coming together. Traditional Irish music was my first foundation that really moved me; I competed in Irish dance. Moving to Nashville (from Chicago) around nine years old, there’s been influence of bluegrass, old country — (whether) older cuts from people like Dolly Parton, or (recent old-time style) like Nickel Creek. Alison Krauss was a huge influence. I sing Find a Lover more with Irish style, like Cara Dillon; and I play my fiddle. I started writing that song on banjo at another Irish musician friend’s house. When I got to perform it (at YRAS) in Ireland, Ron Block of (Alison Krauss &) Union Station played banjo — that blew my mind.
Seeds profoundly moves me. Weeding out seeds planted in your life, that you don’t want to grow…
FISHER: Yeah, a wild and magical thing about art is sharing something that is very personal to you in the service of trying to express something, then it connects with other people. That’s extremely rewarding. Seeds (provoked) conversations with lots of people, and I love hearing what it means to them. I’ve certainly experienced things that I don’t want to see continue in my life or in future generations: adverse circumstances, abuse… (flowering is a running theme in) Blooming, it’s in many titles — Dogwood, and June references the energy of new life and color.
But I also thought Seeds was really important to the project’s whole. Look at the season we’re in now; it’s cold, leaves are (gone), flowers aren’t blooming — yet things are alive, things are changing. We need periods of rest and change; no one can be productive or blooming all the time. That is a theme I deeply wanted to express. Healing doesn’t happen in a straight line, either. There are times where I felt extremely powerful, joyful, on the right path, even after really hard things; but challenges come up, that is reflective of nature.
As we grow, we need to continue embracing all those seasons and their functions, if that makes sense. Seeds talks about having specific wounds and challenges — weeds that we don’t want to have power in our life — and it’s an ongoing battle to try balancing those things, and to understand that it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to struggle. Seeds is a calling to wanting to live an intentional life, and it’s okay if doubt is part of that. I never want to give the impression that my personal growth is done; because I think when we stop growing, learning, and changing, we die.
In my experience, songwriting necessitates stillness; but sitting still with my thoughts is a struggle for contending with my PTSD. How do you make songwriting a positive experience — rather than getting consumed by flashbacks and overthinking?
FISHER: Interesting question; thank you for that. I love talking about writing, and I like talking about therapy. For me, art has been therapeutic; an outlet that helps me express myself. And then if it’s something that I’m lucky enough to share with other people, that other half of art kicks in — where I get to potentially hear back from someone, “Hey, you’re not alone. I feel that too.” That can be extremely encouraging.
It’s vulnerable because I could say, “These are my fears, these are my wounds,” and someone could be mean to me with that information. But far and away, most of the time, what is so impactful is the positive outcome of connecting with other people. I’ve rarely had the experience that the blank page feels awful; it’s mostly felt like a free space, especially when I was able to get out of bad situations — and it wasn’t being controlled by someone else, and I was truly free to express what I was carrying.
Any special Ohio memories?
FISHER: Definitely Dublin, Ohio’s Irish Festival — one of the foremost American Irish festivals, I was honored to play with my family band maybe three times. It’s massive; really well-run, beautiful grounds. Great hospitality for artists. I’ve been back a few times just to volunteer and see friends.