Daily Dose: Alice Wallace, “Santa Ana Winds”

Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.

Country music is so often synonymous with storytelling, but the genre’s authors aren’t always, or even usually, tasked with telling happy tales.

In 2018, a series of very unhappy occurrences swept California, which experienced its most deadly and destructive wildfire season on record. Communities and cities are still reeling from the Camp Fire, in particular, the deadliest in state history. Singer/songwriter Alice Wallace, who was born in and has since returned to California, chronicles the devastation brought on by the fires in her song “Santa Ana Winds,” the video for which is premiering today (Jan. 18) here at Paste. Also out today is Wallace’s fourth studio album, Into the Blue, on Rebelle Road.

The Santa Ana Winds for which the song is named are often a catalyst in worsening fires in the extremely dry Southern California and northern Baja California. Wallace has a foreboding, but necessary, outlook on the phenomenon. “Out on the horizon, there’s a wicked orange glow,” she sings over a sludgy Americana stomp. “They couldn’t save the horses, they had to let them go / While the Santa Ana Winds just blow.” In the video, Wallace traipses across various Californian landscapes, even crossing into scorched territory.

Here’s what Wallace said about the video:

The Santa Ana winds are a force we are so familiar with in California, and many times they are what cause the indiscriminate wildfires that have plagued our state. This video gives just a tiny glimpse into their terrible wrath. So many people have lost so much in the last few years, and this now includes the owners of the Dragonfly Creek Studio in Malibu where we recorded parts of the new album. All of the stark images were recorded at their property, which completely burned with the exception of the stables and the studio. In the midst of their own recovery, they allowed us to film so other people could see the devastation. We’re planning to make a donation toward Malibu’s recovery as part of this album release.

Indeed, 100 percent of the proceeds from this song, which can be purchased here with the album, will be donated to Help California, an organization working to rebuild and restore the areas affected by the wildfires.

The Golden State love doesn’t end on “Santa Ana Winds.” Elsewhere on Into the Blue, Wallace praises the rain at the end of a six-year drought (“When She Cries”), salutes a southwestern cowboy (“Echo Canyon”) and recounts an immigrant’s search for a better life across the border (“Desert Rose”).

Watch the video for “Santa Ana Winds” below and keep scrolling for Wallace’s tour dates. You can purchase Into the Blue here.

Alice Wallace Tour Dates:

January
27 – Park City, Utah @ ChefDance
29 – Park City, Utah @ The Spur

February
08 – Santa Ana, Calif. @ Original Mikes – OC Album Release
15 – Palm Desert, Calif. @ Big Rock Pub
21 – San Diego, Calif. @ Belly Up Solana Beach
23 – Ojai, Calif. @ Ojai Underground Exchange
24 – Paso Robles, Calif. @ Tooth and Nail Winery

March
01 – Santa Rosa, Calif. @ Rebel Junk Vintage Market
02 – Santa Ana, Calif. @ Orange County Music Showcase Festival
05 – Hermosa Beach, Calif. @ Next Women in Country, The Lighthouse
31 – Echo Park, Calif. @ Roots Roadhouse

May
05 – Buffalo, N.Y. @ Sportman’s Tavern