Abigayle Oakley is a prolific 25-year-old Nashville-based songwriter who shrugs off her accomplishments, believing that fellow Music City musicians have an even larger stable of songs.
Since age 22, Oakley has written about 100 songs per year.
“I stopped counting, but I do have them all in a folder,” she tells me. “There are just so many people to collaborate with in Nashville, and I find myself co-writing multiple times a week. I also make time to write by myself, because that’s how it all started for me. It’s an achievement to write a lot of songs, but it’s also what I must do to be a songwriter! Some of the writers in town who have been doing it a while have thousands of songs.”
Oakley, who grew up in Las Vegas and began writing songs at age 15, moved to Nashville to study songwriting and music business at Belmont University. She released an EP Vegas in 2022, followed by her first album Recovering Optimist in 2023 and a deluxe version this year. Many creative — and often playful — videos online showcase her unique songwriting and singing talents.
“Sometimes writing is magic,” says Oakley, who previously performed under her birth name Kompst. “It’s like the walls are whispering their best ideas just to you, and sometimes I show up to the page, and nothing good comes out. But no matter what, I show up. That would be my advice to prospective songwriters: Just write. Don’t worry about it being good. Just show up to the page and listen. The song will tell you what it wants to do.”
Oakley stores a lot of ideas in her phone’s notes app. The ideas often come during conversations, drives, visual observations and even dishwashing. Then, she noodles on her guitar and decides whether the ideas fit the noodling.
“Songwriting is fun, so that’s why I can make so much time for it!” Oakley exclaims. “I also love to travel. It’s been cool to have traveled to different parts of the country — Texas, Maine, Montana, California, New York — to perform the songs I have written. I try to hike in any new place I’m in. I also love going to thrift stores and hanging with friends in Nashville. Having fun is an essential part of writing songs, so I make sure I have lots of play time!”
In New York earlier this year, Oakley performed at the historic Bitter End, which opened in 1961 and was a venue where many young artists performed, including Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Lady Gaga and Neil Diamond.
“It was a pretty special show for me because of how legendary that venue is,” says Oakley, who began playing guitar at age 12. “The posters on the wall with names like Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder definitely make for a magical room.”
Oakley calls her music “existential indie folk,” because “I really like to write about the human experience and how weird life can be at times,” she explains. “I want to make people feel connected to their humanity when they listen to my music. Life is weird, but, at least, we’re all in it together.”
I ask Oakley to point out the lyrics of a few songs that reach deepest in her heart.
“I have a song called ‘Worst Gaslighter’ that’s all about being your own worst critic,” she responds. “It was a hard song to write but a really important one to me, because I had to own up to my own flaws. ‘I’m a chronic overthinker, tugging at my fingers. I’m my own best fighter, my worst gaslighter.’ The songs that are the hardest to write connect with others the most and are the most healing to me personally.”
Oakley posted a lively, carefree video to promote a new song called “Hazel Eyed Lover in Patagonia.”
“The only way I can get myself to do promotion work for myself is to make it really fun,” she says. “For this video, my boyfriend and I went to our favorite park, and I walked all around with my backpacking backpack.”
Hazel Eyed Lover in Patagonia
I’m tired of trying to be a rockstar
I wanna be where the dirt and the rocks are
I wanna be where I feel small again
I got my shoes and my tent and my map packed
Watched a YouTube on how to backpack
Then I saw you in bright blue walking up ahead
And I thought ooh
This is the great outdoors
This is wanna be yours
It’s love at first campsite
My hazel eyed lover in Patagonia
I fell for you like instant mashed potatoes|
Dissolving over heat as we watched the flame grow
You spoke to me like I’d known you for miles
Now I’m saving up 60 grand
To move our life into a sprinter van
So we can finally chase a new sunset every night
Singing ooh
This is the great outdoors
This is I wanna be yours
It’s love at first campsite
My hazel eyed lover in Patagonia
I hope our trails always come together
Way out here where the trail mix tastes better
You’re in your fleece and I’m in my sweater
Singing oooh
This is the great outdoors
This is I wanna be yours
Love at first campsite
Oooh
This is the great outdoors
This is I wanna be yours
Love at first campsite
My hazel eyed lover in Patagonia
“It’s a love song that takes place on a backpacking trip,” Oakley says. “That lyric ‘I wanna be where I feel small again’ is my love for the feeling you get when standing in the middle of the forest or by the ocean, and you feel small in the midst of a mighty world. It can be very healing. When life gets overwhelming, I know I can go on a hike, and my stress and anxiety will turn into gratitude for our beautiful planet.”
Oakley and five other musicians won the New Folk Competition this year at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. They will be touring together in the state in November.
I ask Oakley which concert she attended by another artist most influenced her as a musician.
“I’ve seen Madison Cunningham in concert twice in Nashville, and, each time, I was blown away by how she never misses a note,” Oakley says. “She’s a perfect guitar player and vocalist, and her songs are just so good. She inspires me to practice — haha!”
What’s the best album Oakley has ever listened to?
“The list is ever changing, but, right now, I really love The Party by Andy Shauf, No Way to Relax When You Are on Fire by Dora Jar and This is How Tomorrow Moves by Beabadoobee,” Oakley answers. “The writing and production are creative on all these projects — unlike anything I’ve heard!”
Oakley plans to release this year six new songs that she produced with Anthony Da Costa, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter-guitarist. Da Costa has released solo albums and a duo album with Abbie Gardner and played in bands of Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Joy Williams.
“Anthony and I recorded in Nashville at his studio called Pleasantville Recording, and it was very pleasant!” Oakley exclaims. “Anthony is a brilliant musician and added some great guitar stuff, synths and vocals to this project. I’m trying to build up my social media before releasing everything. I want to make sure this project gets heard, because I care a lot about it. It is pre-released on my Patreon, though.”
Oakley’s talents, smarts and creativity add up to an exciting future for a 25-year-old musician. But I ask her where she sees her career at age 45.
“I’d love to feel as excited and new to things as I feel now,” she responds. “It’s always a process, and I hope I get better at making things mentally, spiritually and financially sustainable. It’d also be cool to check off a few bucket-list items: going on a support tour for one of my favorite artists, playing the Ryman and — ooh — Red Rocks and selling out a show in Nashville.”