“She Can’t Not Do It”: Abbie McAllister’s Daydreams Become Reality 

“Who heals the healer? / Who bandages the bleeder / who will sing to the empty theater,” wonders singer/songwriter Abbie McAllister in her song “Jester.” McAllister writes inquisitive, cerebral songs, which she delivers in a high, clear voice, riveting for its airy lilt, and readily setting up the 21-year-old West Virginian as a magnetic musical force. In “Jester,” an allegory for self-worth, she imagines both sides of a defiant conversation between a king and his court jester, singing, “slip your shoes on, and dance until you’re done / waiting alone, by a throne, with freedom as your gun.” Delightfully unexpected, the song lands in part because of its theatricality.