Abigail Vail

Abigail Vail is a New England singer/songwriter who performs as a solo artist and as a duet with her father, Luke, at venues locally and as far as Nashville, Tennessee and Ireland. She has opened for national acts to include “The Little River Band,” and “Eddie Money,” at the South Shore Music Circus and The Cape Cod Melody Tent. She has appeared on various New England radio stations to include Country 102.5, WATD 95.9, and WCOD 106.1 where she performed her original songs for local listeners. She states that her ‘strong suit’ lies in her writing. Her greatest aspirations in the world of music revolve around writing and co-writing for artists in the world of country and folk music. When asked who she looks to as a model for success she is quick to supply the name Lori McKennna, another New England artist who wrote country music’s song of the year, “Humble and Kind,” performed by Tim McGraw. Lori, according to Abigail, epitomizes great writing in her honest lyrics that transport you to simple times, revealing the beauty in the ordinary. Abigail’s passion for music runs deep as she has always loved writing poetry and recounts that the majority of her fondest memories revolve around sharing her love of folk music with her grandfather during car rides and on fishing trips. Her father, Luke Vail, taught music lessons for decades before Abigail took up playing, writing and singing music. The impetus for her introduction to the world of music stemmed from a guitar that had collected dust in the corner of her childhood bedroom, a need for an outlet as a young woman exploring herself and her relationships with the people around her and having a music teacher for a father. Abigail writes primarily from her own life experiences and states that her writing is “a kind of therapy for the adversity that life hands you bit by bit.” She grows with and through her songwriting. In addition to her original work Abigail plays as a cover artist for a project she calls, “women in folk music”. The set list for this project is comprised of songs written by women in folk during the 1960’s and 1970’s to include Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Melanie Safka and more. She admits that the driving force behind this project is that she grew up with this music. “It’s funny how people will approach me after a show and tell me they haven’t heard these songs since they were teens and I can’t help but think it is so amazing to have been seventeen years old dancing to “You’re So Vain” in my bedroom just as people did decades before me. Music really does connect us all in the end,” Abigail says. One of Abigail’s favorite parts of the experience of being a musician is the relationships she’s been fortunate enough to have formed, the friends she has made define who she has become today. She loves the music community, she loves that it allows people to be vulnerable and present with each other in a way that is “quite rare in our technologically driven society”. For this reason Abigail started a passion project in the spring of 2018 called “Bramhall’s Open Mic.” Abigail and her boyfriend Sam Bramhall, of “Bramhall’s Country Store,” in Plymouth, put together an open mic at his family owned shop and invited the local music community to join them every other Tuesday throughout the duration of the open mic season to share songs, stories and friendship. The mission of the open mic was to raise money from “pay to play” door donations to support children in attending the music program at “Rick’s Music World,” in Raynham, Ma. Abigail and the Bramhall family were ecstatic to have raised over $1,000 in their first open mic season to support this cause. “Our open mic community is amazing, the generosity of our listeners and performers have facilitated our ability to give the gift of music lessons to local children so they can someday share the experience and the community we have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed at our open mic. We can’t thank our open mic goers enough for supporting the store, each other and the future of the New England music community,” says Abigail. She is excited to see where music will take her next and has enjoyed the experiences she has had thus far. “I think it’s easy to forget that playing music is a gift that not just everyone gets to experience. I am 24 years old and in my young life I have experienced some things that most people will never experience in 100 years of living. For this, I am so thankful and feel so blessed every day. I get to let people in to my mind, my life and my heart through my music.”