Virtual Concert! Alyssa Yeager
Rhiannon’s Lark is a solo music project created by Alyssa Yeager (sensual vocals, growly guitar, candy-coated ukulele) to express the reality of life as a geek, goddess, and girl. Alyssa is known for her “magickal, mystical storytelling”. She began touring the festival circuit in 2005 with the band Telling Point, and has shared bills with artists including Frenchy and the Punk, Wendy Rule, Kellianna, and Tuatha Dea. She has released 5 original albums, including a children’s album designed to encourage kids and caretakers to be creative and tell their own stories in song. Alyssa’s background in music therapy motivates her to create songs that connect to the daily experiences in the lives of her listeners. She brings gaming, fantasy, morality, and t-rexes together into a show that will comfort your ears, get you laughing, and possibly even make you think.
Have you ever wanted to hear a Disney princess sing about the things you love…board games, ninjas, and krakens? Rhiannon’s Lark is happy to make your wish come true. This geek-goddess-girl tackles everything from t-rexes to ethical dilemmas with insightful lyrics, gorgeous vocals, and gentle humor.
Creator Alyssa Yeager is both a professional musician and practicing music therapist. In 2007, she released her first album, and all-original children’s album, “Normal is Boring”, inspired by her work at Rainbow Babies and Children’s hospital in Cleveland, OH. Later that year, things got a little heavier (musically speaking) as she joined up with world class drummer Sue Balaschak of Primal Rhythm and Burning Sage. As the duo “Telling Point”, Alyssa and Sue began touring the festival and convention circuits with their unique brand of tribal rock. 5 years and 2 albums later, Alyssa headed back to her home state of New York to pursue personal and professional goals.
In 2013, Alyssa’s solo project “Rhiannon’s Lark” was born, bringing together her unique perspective on nerdery, spirituality, and moral choices in a chaotic world. Over the last several years, Rhiannon’s Lark has made appearances at sci-fi, fantasy, and gaming conventions as well as pagan-centered events including Gen Con, DragonCon, Sirius Rising, Origins, the Northeast Fire and Arts festival, and Pagan Prides. Her first EP under the new project, “Initiative” showcased exactly what you can expect from a Rhiannon’s Lark show: a deep-dive into board games and general geekery, some sweet personal stories, and a questioning look at society’s current values.
Building on this introduction, Alyssa released her first full length Rhiannon’s Lark album in 2016, “Sky Full of Phoenix”. This was an ambitious undertaking that allowed Alyssa to create much fuller arrangements of her repertoire and perform on a variety of instruments in the studio: guitar, bass, ukulele, percussion, harmonica, jeans, and corduroy (yes, she played pants). Several songs also featured guest musicians adding piano, flute, drums, and bagpipes. According to fans, the favorite songs from this album are “Corduroy Ninja”, (about a ninja who has to learn to be sneaky while wearing corduroy,) “Birds of Rhiannon”, (a story that explains how Alyssa chose the name “Rhiannon’s Lark” based on the welsh legend of the Goddess Rhiannon,) and “Job, the armored donkey”, (about how sometimes your animal companions become the most memorable part of an RPG campaign).
In 2018, Rhiannon’s Lark released a different sort of album, “Meditations for Geeks”. Meditations about Hobbits, the Dark Crystal, the Force, cats, and more? Yes please! Alyssa drew on her experience leading guided meditations as part of her music therapy work to create a unique collection of guided meditations based on sci-fi and fantasy themes.
In 2019, Rhiannon’s Lark released her latest full length album, “Sugar and Spice and Dinosaurs” (that’s what geek girls are made of). This recent collection is right in line with Alyssa’s favorite themes and includes songs about sloths, female equality, cartoons, love, crafting, and more.
