Video: Alicia Blue, ‘DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)’

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Alicia blue (Photo by Tammie Valer)

“Don’t ask me to smile / I’m not your puppet hanging on your silly string,” Alicia Blue sings on the lead track on her new EP, “Inner Child Work – Part 1.”

“DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)” is a sweetly sung yet strong self-affirmation from Blue, who forsook her native Los Angeles for Nashville after the release of her 2020 debut album, “Bravebird.” She characterizes the change in geography as equal parts a mission to elevate her artistry and an effort to make sense of her life thus far. “Every time I write a song,” she says, “it’s deeply connected to some chaos that was never figured out.”

Her inner inquisitions are revealed in shimmering, lyrically keen folk-pop confessionals that are delivered with a certain self-possessed cool. Blue says she found an important collaborator in producer-songwriter Lincoln Parish, formerly of Cage the Elephant, who helped lay the foundation for the songs on “Inner Child Work – Part 1.”

They are ample reason to look forward to Part 1.

||| Watch: The video for “DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)”

||| Also: Stream “Inner Child Work – Part 1” in its entirety

||| Previously: “Dog Days in LA,” “Blackbird,” “Queen of Echo Park”