Musician Sandy Bailey Goes Her Own Way with ‘Daughter of Abraham’

By Marisa Torrieri Bloom

Sandy Bailey sings and plays in a style that is both poised and wild, informed, perhaps, by the contradictory influences of her sheltered Pentecostal upbringing and her adult desire to break free — and forge a different path for her children.

Her newly released album, Daughter of Abraham, balances these influences beautifully, combining gospel, soul, blues, and rock with storytelling that offers depth and historical food for thought. Songs like “I Ain’t Your Honey,” exude sexy confidence through the vehicle of blues-rock guitar runs, while the ’70s-style “Get The Message Through” harps on the exhaustion of Bailey’s life as a single, biracial, working-class mom as she reflects on the passage of time.

While each song is a treasure in its own right, the masterfully recorded “Daughter of Abraham” truly shows that the road to self-actualization is paved with an emotional journey to the past: The song, inspired by Sandy’s 258-year-old house that was rumored to be a part of the Underground Railroad, begins with an eerie, twangy guitar, and an introduction to our protagonist, circa 1859, who’s brought to life as we move toward a big chorus.

We recently caught up with the Northampton, Mass.- based Bailey to learn more about that song, her views on religion and motherhood, and how she’s mining the past while looking toward the future.:

Rockmommy: Hi Sandy! You had a pretty interesting upbringing. Could you tell us about that?

Sandy Bailey: I grew up right outside of Hartford, in a very mixed-race family, and a biracial Pentecostal church, which is, like, a very, sort of strict gospel background. And I grew up singing gospel music. That’s the one thing that I am grateful for that came out of that. And I got out of that when I was about 19, when I went to college and moved further up north to Massachusetts.

But because I ended up having kids pretty young, and I was a single mom with two babies, my main focus just became feeding the babies, hustling for cash, putting a roof over our heads. And then I’ve always just remained active as much as I could have, and never stopped writing songs and never stop learning about music.

Rockmommy: How old are your kids now?

Sandy Bailey: My kids are 15 and 16, and I kind of just never really thought about trying to pursue music professionally until just this past year and a half maybe. And it’s kind of good timing because my kids are teens, and they have more time because they don’t really want to hang out with me anymore.

Rockmommy: Could you tell us more about the Pentecostal upbringing?

Sandy Bailey: I mean, my mom’s white, my dad’s black, both from Connecticut, and back in this 70s I feel like there was like a big movement, like a handful of lost hippies that found Jesus and like became born again.

There were a lot of rules and regulations like women couldn’t wear pants. You couldn’t go away to college as a young woman or you couldn’t like leave your parents’ house unless you got married. And, you know, they kind of put the fear of God in you from a very young age. I went through a lot of therapy since then. At 19 like some logic kicked in, and I was like,’ if this if Christianity this is supposed to be about peace, joy and love, I’m not experiencing any of that.’

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Rockmommy: Well, it sounds like it’s fuel for creativity, but it’s also really hard.

Sandy Bailey: There’s a lot of work that you have to do to like, be like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to hell, I’m not a piece of shit.’ It definitely was challenging at the time to go my own way.

Rockmommy: How did this shape your musical tastes?

Sandy Bailey: Well, I mean, also another result of growing up in the church is I was not allowed to listen to music. So I’ve never really developed a taste or an ear for like popular music. I have a lot of like Blues and Gospel background, soulful singing.

Rockmommy: You weren’t allowed to listen to outside recordings? It had to be strictly church music or your own instruments?

Sandy Bailey: Yeah, right. Exactly. Nothing secular. Only Christian or gospel. But I did, you know, absorb some stuff like when I was a teen like at first job when I was filing for a doctor’s office. They had waiting-room music and this tape cassette of Simon and Garfunkel tape that I just I would into my car. It’s pretty, you know, rock and roll.

Rockmommy: Can little bit about what inspired the song, “Daughter of Abraham?”

Sandy Bailey: What first inspired me is when I moved into this house in Massachusetts a couple years ago, it was built in 1765. And it I was told that it may have been part of the Underground Railroad. And that sparked my imagination of like, clearly this house is older than the country and who, and it’s right on the Connecticut River, you know, it’s like right on the road to Canada.

Rockmommy: What does it mean to be a working-class artist?

Sandy Bailey: Some people who go into the music business don’t have to also work to feed people or provide housing or things like that. But I’ve always just had to like, figure out a job. I’ve been able to like pursue songwriting as a career source of income. It costs money to start a music career. I’m starting a small business. But there’s always got to be just like a side hustle all the time. I’ve never been on tour because I’ve been raising kids and work weekends.

Rockmommy: How does being a mom inform everything?

Sandy Bailey: Kids are super inspiring to be around. They’re just like little creative, free thinking. You know, we just have like a lot of fun. And so that’s like, having fun and being playful is a part of creativity, right? My focus has always been primarily, ‘okay, let’s like, give these kids a real good childhood. I want to be with them. I like don’t want to miss any of this. I know you can do it — like there’s touring moms, out there — but to start a career, you know, it takes a lot.

I’m grateful for all those years and now it’s a good time to like start doing my own thing a little more because teens, you know, they start going their own way and they’re off doing their thing.

Marisa Torrieri Bloom is the editor and founder of Rockmommy.