Alma Russ

Alma Russ is a singer/songwriter living in western North Carolina. She sings a blend of folk, bluegrass, and mountain ballads and plays fiddle, claw-hammer banjo and guitar. Born in north-central Florida, Alma spent the first 12 years of her life on the family farm in Oxford, a small town about 45 minutes south of Gainesville. Summer vacations with her family to western North Carolina fostered early interests in "Old Time Music." As a child, Alma learned to sing mountain ballads, (traditional songs passed down generations from Scotch-Irish immigrants to the area). The Appalachian culture was also one of Alma's first inspirations for learning to play fiddle. Alison Krauss, an early influence, inspired her to begin fiddle lessons around age 12. It was about this time that Alma's family moved to Whittier, NC, a small town just outside Smoky Mountain National Park. Alma continued learning fiddle and later took claw-hammer banjo lessons with the JAM program (Junior Appalachian Musicians). Alma was home-schooled up until high school, where she attended Jackson County Early College, graduating with both her high school diploma and Associate of Arts degree simultaneously after 4 years of study. During her high school years, Alma joined in with other bands mostly as a fiddler and has recorded fiddle as a session artist for other bands at studios such as Echo Mountain in Asheville. She began writing and composing music around age 14 and always has songs in various stages of development. Her primary musical influences include country gold, bluegrass, gypsy jazz, and folk. In October 2017, she auditioned with American Idol in Savannah, for Season 1 on ABC and received 3 yeses from Katy Perry, Luke Bryan & Lionel Richie (not featured on the show). Lionel Richie compared her to Dolly Parton and Katy Perry said she was a cross between Alison Krauss and Stevie Nicks. She made it to Hollywood where she performed a cover of Stevie Nicks' song, Edge of Seventeen, (song not featured on the show), before before coming back home to North Carolina. One hundred sixty nine golden tickets were awarded out of over seventy thousand applicants and she is honored to have been one of the few golden ticket recipients!