Singer Hayley Sabella digs deep but likes the lighter side, too

May 20--Hayley Sabella writes and sings deeply probing and soulful songs, sometimes even harrowingly emotional and confessional, but there's something about her that doesn't come through in her songs.

She's a hoot.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Her Crooked Heart and Hayley Sabella

WHEN: 8 to 11 p.m. Friday, May 25

WHERE: The Root Note, 115 S. Fourth St.

CONTACT: 608-782-7668

At the end of April, Sabella released her second full-length album, "Forgive the Birds," prompting a shout-out from Rolling Stone Country, which designated her one of "10 New Country Artists You Should Know" and said her music was for fans of "Anais Mitchell, Amanda Shires and flannel-lined L.L. Bean jeans."

The Rolling Stone acknowledgement hasn't really had huge repercussions yet, she admitted during a recent phone interview from her home in Plymouth, Mass. "Well, people in my hometown think I'm cooler than I was before," she said with a laugh. "I was just ecstatic that Rolling Stone was interested in what I was doing."

The album came out at the end of April, but Sabella had to work another two weeks at her insurance business job before she could start getting ready to depart on the tour to mark the release of her album, a tour that brings her to The Root Note in La Crosse on Friday, May 25.

Part of her tour preparation included getting her 2000 Toyota Sienna minivan with 200,000 miles on it checked out by a mechanic. "It looks like it could make it all the way to La Crosse," said Sabella, who is making her first visit to Wisconsin. "I'm crossing my fingers. I'm calling her Blue Stallion in hopes of boosting her confidence."

As nice as the Rolling Stone nod was, calling her a country artist doesn't quite cover it. "I don't have too heavy of a twang. But I decided it was OK because I do have pedal steel on the record," she said. "Genre labels freak me out. It can be a little bit narrowing. It can narrow your audience in ways I don't always think is fair."

Sabella's music also has a folk tinge to it, and some songs have a pop melodicism to them, a stronger element on her first album. "I used to be really freaked out by pop as a label, but I think I've come to peace with that," she said. "I just didn't want people thinking my music was superficial."

Sabella spent the early part of her childhood in Plymouth, then moved to Central America for a time with her music teacher parents, who went there as missionaries. When she came back to Plymouth, she farmed for a time in her early 20s near the house she lived in as a kid, hoping to establish a connection and a sense of belonging that was missing after being uprooted and immersed in a different culture at an impressionable age.

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