"I Have A Fairy Godmother": Eloise Rixey on Playing Festivals and Speaking Your Truth

When I approach Eloise Rixey at a Nashville coffee shop on an early March morning, the first thing I observe about the singer/songwriter is that she looks straight out of an indie-downtown-girl-cottagecore Pinterest board. This impression of her is quickly supported by the revelation that she’s a music business major with a legal studies emphasis and a philosophy minor.

“I'm from St Augustine, Florida…. it's got one of the best music scenes, I would argue, in the world,” she explains. The city raised Lynyrd Skynyrd and the more recent band, Flipturn, among others. She describes playing festivals like the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival prior to college. Eloise is most inspired by the Avett Brothers and Liz Williamson, but communal festival experiences have also been defining to her artistry, “There's… all these huge headline artists, but at night, we're all around the campfire, and they all want to hear what you have to say… ‘Let me play with you, let me do this.’… Everybody just wants to be in it.”

This is a unique experience for a festival, but Eloise’s interesting background as an artist doesn’t end there, “I'm deaf on [one] side of my head… I really want to open [myself to] a bigger scene of deaf musicians [and] really join that community… I [learned to] play violin [first], and I'm deaf [in the ear closest to the violin], so it was a little more difficult [to learn.]” This morphed into cello, piano, acoustic guitar, then bass, then electric guitar, harmonica, and drums. She calls her father a “phenomenal drummer”. Music has surrounded her for her whole life, and being deaf isn’t stopping her from pursuing it. She wants to contribute to the loving atmosphere of this community. Undoubtedly, her captivating whimsical nature will help her send any message she wants.

Eloise Rixey, photo by Zeni Barrett.

“I have a fairy godmother,” Eloise blurts out. I immediately start laughing, but I wholeheartedly believe her. “This lady came up to me when I was seven, and she was like, ‘Do you have a fairy godmother? She invites me to her cottage in the woods… we have tea, and she makes everything she owns. She's a part of these three women who run it. They are, like, fairies… full-fledged.”

This is between stories about her nose ring going down her sink drain and a testimony on how fashion positively impacts the images of megastars like Lady Gaga and Chappell Roan. She says, “Being true to what you feel on the inside [through your style] is so vital to expressing yourself… [because] that is what your music is. That is what all this is. And people… they'll be able to spot a fake from a mile away.”

While Eloise doesn’t directly equate being fake to being a follower, I sense a common thread between her perspectives on fashion and on making change, “Do not be a follower. If you are passionate about… a message that you have to share, and the way you want to share it isn't there… do it yourself.” She recently posted a song on Instagram reels about the current ICE raids, “A lot of what's going on in the world makes me feel kind of hopeless and leaves me with a pit in my stomach… I don't know what to do about it… [but] I've really been inspired by John Prine… and Joni Mitchell, and Joan Baez… all those people who really are incredible at writing for change… without [only] saying, ‘This is happening, and I don't like it.’” In the song, Eloise sings, “Tiny minds with big, big guns, they’re firing like it’s all good fun, these ice-cold winds”.

Eloise Rixey performing at the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival

Eloise plans to use her upcoming set at Nashville’s Exit/In, Sisters in Song, as a stepping stone into a new stage in her career, “My set [is a lot of] my older music, and I am really utilizing it as a… closure of all these things that I've written in the past, that I've put so much energy and so much time into… it's giving them a place to rest.” 

Her next step is releasing more music. In her approach to the future, she shoots for the moon (she cites one of her proudest accomplishments as playing a festival headlined by Noah Kahan and Norah Jones) but she remains quite grounded. She tells, “The best kind of advice I've gotten from… doing all of this is to live each day like you already have [your dream.]” As a singer/songwriter attending a school where she learns about the music industry, she feels as if her dream has already sort of come true. In that sense, she sees value in pacing herself, “I've heard [from] people who are playing gigs every week, ‘Oh, I'm not doing enough.’ And it's like, ‘Baby, you're 18.’” Pacing can get you far, and the journey should be enjoyed too.

The next step, after Sisters in Song, is the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival. She plans to release new music, try to play around the country over the summer, and collaborate with more people.

Purchase tickets to Sisters in Song here and follow Eloise online at @eloiserixey.

The poster for Sisters in Song, designed by Annie McNamara.