Having spent most of her youth in Ontario, Canada, absorbing the music of various family members – her grandfather especially, a Hawaiian Jazz and blues piano player – she was singing as far back as her memory allows. Childhood gigs at Christmas parties and fundraisers progressed to busking in her teenage years, singing blues, soul and Grateful Dead songs around the lakeside beaches of Toronto. But it was when Talise discovered the intricacies of the banjo and musicians like Ola Belle Reed, Gillian Welch and Townes Van Zandt that she found her true calling. Filming herself through the learning process and uploading the videos to YouTube laid the seeds for a faithful and ever-growing fanbase.

Talise speaks earnestly about the rawness and simplicity in music that comes from lived experience, a connection to the land and a trust in the strength of a simple song. This, coupled with a love of travel – hitching rides in stranger’s cars and hopping on old box car trains – and how it goes hand in hand, are complicit in making up her unique world view.

In modern times of uncertainty and doubt, in which people are tuned in to the frequencies of the internet and social media more and more, there’s been a re-emergence of an older, traditional view of music – Americana especially – that sits in direct opposition to the synthetic world of influencers and algorithms, yet almost paradoxically reaches its audience through that medium. Talise gets to the heart of why she feels the time has come for a sea change in attitudes and ideas toward art, a return to the original function of song.

Asked about her hopes for what may happen in the future, Talise has a clear vision for the purpose of her music, and indicates that it may be a metaphorical antidote to the roads and highways she’s spent so long traversing: ‘I want my music to be a place folks can come home to — something honest and steady when the world feels shaky'.

On the strength of that mission statement, bet that Talise and her songs will become a place for the weariest of travellers to use as a companion, and something special to return home with.