Kentucky’s Rhyan Sinclair is one of those rare songwriters who can simultaneously pay tribute to artists who inspire her and create something entirely new, within one song. In 2018, she released her first solo full-length, Barnstormer and the holiday EP, Marshmallow World. Both were well received and she spent that year and most of 2019 on the road, touring the US. 

In the spring of 2022, this impressive new voice in country returns with Letters to Aliens, which continues the theme of a woman on a journey, but this time the vibe is cosmic, seventies-esque folk rock with whispers of traditional country. 

The album represents a return to live music after an unexpected 2 year break. Recovery time from a car accident bled into the pandemic lockdown.  ​“I had total writer’s block for the first part of the pandemic. I had all these bits and pieces of melodies and lyrics that I really believed in, but I just couldn’t finish them.” A combination of therapy to work through past trauma, meditation, reading up on ancient astrology and spending time with her dogs helped end her block. “I had to do all of those things in order to be able to continue writing, because I had been going at such a fast pace before the pandemic. I had to grow and heal as a human before I could move forward as a songwriter.” 

“The recording process of this album felt like arriving at home,” says Sinclair. “It was the recording process I’d always dreamed of.” Letters to Aliens prominently features Sinclair’s band, The South 65. The band’s high energy musical camaraderie is essential to the album’s signature sound. 

One of the most notably impactful elements of Aliens is the personal nature of the lyrics. Sinclair has always found writing to be therapeutic and she describes Aliens as her most revealing and therapeutic album to date. The album has a timeless feel that would be just as relevant tucked between records by The Doobie Brothers, Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt in the 70’s, on a mixtape with Tom Petty and The Pretenders in the 80’s or among recent work by Jason Isbell, Steve Earle or Brandi Carlile. 

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​“This album is a documentation of my human experience,” says Sinclair. “My time capsule, my letter on a balloon, my story thus far. With any luck, these songs will reach others who feel a bit like outsiders, misfits…aliens. I hope that people listen to this record and feel like at least a few of the songs understand them. That’s always my goal. I hope it takes them on a journey, and maybe even inspires them to get a little closer to their inner child. I’ve found so much confidence and freedom in facing the traumas from my past and moving through them, instead of running from them like I did for a while. I can only hope that one of my songs could possibly inspire someone else to do the same, even in the smallest way.” 

Look for the release of Letters to Aliens on March 4, 2022