Sophie Gault makes alt-country music with the uncanny ability to toggle between the sweet and the gritty. But whichever direction she chooses, the result is always gripping, unapologetic, and deeply personal.

She has had to conquer inner foes — facing the debilitating mystery of bipolar disorder — but has emerged on the other side empowered and with the songs to show for it, each delivered with her lilting yet attitude-heavy voice. The storytelling is honest and vivid, and her guitar playing evokes the blues stylings of Bonnie Raitt and Mississippi John Hurt.

After moving to Nashville from Maryland in 2014, with a guitar case full of the same dreams that lead so many to Music City, she was derailed by mental health struggles and spent three separate occasions in institutions. The music industry is daunting enough, especially for women, but the addition of doctors, medication cocktails, and the embarrassment caused by manic episodes that her peers never understood make Sophie’s success so far all the more inspiring.

But first, she ran and hid, to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to be exact, afraid of being the butt of conversations in a sometimes-gossipy music community. Eventually, she took control of her headspace and summoned the courage to return to Nashville, going on to sign a record deal with Strong Place Music (formerly Petaluma Records) and secure management with the rising Torrez Music Group. Now she has a pair of masterful albums to her credit that showcase her hauntingly beautiful voice and expressive lyrics, including 2024’s superb Baltic Street Hotel.

The album, featuring the ferocious leadoff track “Kick the Devil Away,” was born after getting the opportunity to sing on her hero Lucinda Williams’ album Stories From a Rock n Roll Heart alongside Margo Price and Buddy Miller. Nashville/Americana legend Ray Kennedy, who is famously picky about which artists he chooses to produce, recognized Sophie’s talent and signed on to oversee Baltic Street Hotel.

It's an album that deals head-on with the complicated, vulnerable, and often misunderstood issue of mental illness. Sophie sings bluntly about her actual experience in the driving earworm rocker “Christmas in the Psych Ward”: “I’m gonna go write down some songs & then take ‘em to Nashville / ‘That’s funny, honey, just swallow a few of these pills.’” In “Fixin’ Things,” she admits to being a “hot mess,” and sneers that she’s “sick of saying sorry.” It’s brash, it’s bold, it’s badass.

Her first record, 2023’s Delusions of Grandeur, earned No Depression’s attention, with the outlet raving that it’s “full of vivid storytelling and timeless sounds that establish [her] as a new talent worth knowing.” Holler said, “Her aching, lingering vocal style is reminiscent of Lucinda Williams, her songs are layered with evocative imagery and the arrangements tick all the Americana boxes.”

When she’s not on tour — with artists like Sister Hazel, Jason Eady, Gabe Lee, and Margo Cilker — Sophie plays regularly in Nashville, including at the vaunted Bluebird Cafe. In 2025, she’ll return to the road with Eady and launch a headlining tour in the spring in between recording a new album at Johnny Cash’s Cash Cabin studios. All the while, she’ll continue to celebrate vanquishing the “devil” that she sings about in Baltic Street Hotel — and become a new voice for those who battle their own devils.