At just 21 years old, Stella Prince has already done what most artists spend a lifetime chasing.

She’s been called “the artist bringing folk music to Gen Z” by Forbes, sang at a John Prine tribute in Nashville, and will record her debut album under the Northern Lights in Iceland.

But what struck me most wasn’t her voice (which has shades of Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile)…

It was her work ethic and gratitude.

For seven years, she handled everything — booking, performing, social, promotion — completely solo.

Then, in the last nine months, her dream team came together.

And her reflection is powerful:

“It’s really life-changing to finally have support from other people. It’s the biggest shift I’ve ever felt.”

💡 It’s a reminder for every creator, leader, and dreamer:

You can carry your dream far on your own — but it grows wings assemble your team of supporters!

✨ Don’t miss this moving Americana Curious episode featuring Stella Prince, the rising voice of modern folk.

Raw.

Real road worn.

The artists we feature aren't chasing fame, they're chasing truth.

I'm Ben Fanning with my co host Zach Schultz, and this is Americana Curious, where we spotlight the unsung heroes of Americana music.

You'll get new songs, hard earned lessons, stories behind the music, and a big shot of inspiration.

Follow the show and rate us on Spotify and Apple and leave a review on Apple to help more people discover the power of Americana.

Americana.

Let's get Americana Curious.

Welcome back to Americana Curious.

This is a special episode.

We are here with Stella Prince.

Now, you'll notice my friend Ben is not here.

It is just me.

This is our raw episode.

Ben is back in Charleston and I'm here in Nashville for the wonderful John Prine event called you got Gold, which is a celebration of his life.

And Stella just so happened to play at the Basement east last night.

We're going to get into that in a little bit.

But she is a talented.

If I say talented, folks, your.

Your mind's about to be blown.

This voice is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.

She's been compared to Brandi Carlisle.

I mean, big shoes to fill, but she's got the potential of filling them.

So I just want to start out by saying hi to Stella and say, what did we do last night?

You came out second and you sang six o' clock News, which is just.

It was an incredible version.

That voice kind of showed through.

Tell me what it is about this event and John Prine, because as everybody knows, he's a huge inspiration for this podcast.

What is it about John and how meaningful was it to be there last night?

It truly was honestly one of the biggest highlights of my career and my life so far.

I ended up meeting Fiona Prine only this past year at Folk alliance.

And it was totally random, just totally randomly introduced.

And she was like, oh, my gosh, I actually know who you are.

And I was like, oh, my God.

It was like the most unbelievable thing.

And I think it was a week after that.

She was like, oh, by the way, you know, we do this thing once a year in October.

And that felt like forever.

From then, it was like nine months.

I was like, okay, great.

And she was like, everyone sings one song, and we do a couple of venues all across Nashville a couple days.

And I was blown away by that.

And then last night, it was at the Basement East.

I was the second artist, and they kind of let you request what song you want to sing.

And so I did a really deep dive.

And they asked you.

They asked you to pick your top three.

So I did a lot of research, and I picked, like, you know, the ones that I knew, like angel from Montgomery, like.

Like the biggest ones.

But then I was like, I want to find some.

A song that I have never done, I've never heard of.

And six o' Clock News just kind of popped up, and I read the lyrics, and I heard him sing it, and I was like, oh, my God, this is, like, one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard in my life.

And I learned it just for the show.

That's amazing.

So I was curious about that, if they let you kind of pick a song, because me and my wife last night were having a discussion.

Not a.

Not a disagreement, but the fact that nobody sings Lake Marie, for instance, they have the band play it.

I just wondered if.

If they didn't offer that, but.

So you grew up in Woodstock, So I imagine that with the vibrant history of Woodstock having.

I mean, you're being compared to Joanie.

I mean, that kind of era that you come from or that your voice comes from, what inspired you?

Was there an artist that you listened to?

I think I read that your first concert was levon Helm at 3 years old.

How did.

Growing up in, like, a hotbed of Woodstock, New York, where Dylan lived, the band lived, how did that kind of make your sound and inspire you?

It really influenced me, I'd say, more than anything.

So those are the two genres that I was exposed to.

But with folk music specifically, it was just around all the time.

You know, I saw Pete Seeger live when I was four years old, and it was like he was doing a benefit for the Hudson River.

Like, it was just that kind of thing all the time.

So it was just really incredible and very, like, a unique experience.

And Levon Helm's grandkids went to my school, and I went to school with them.

And, you know, Amy Helm was around all the time, his daughter, and Natalie Merchant.

I went to school with her daughter and, you know, know, Blondies, Christine, his daughters went to, you know, so everyone was just.

It was just like Music City, really.

That's what it was.

That's incredible.

I first.

I mean, how we started our sort of relationship, working relationship.

You posted.

I don't even know how it shows up in Instagram feeds.

I don't I'll never understand Instagram algorithms, but a wonderful cover of Don't Think Twice.

It's All Right by Dylan.

And I shared it and you commented and that's how we met.

But where did this voice come from?

Or where did you.

When did you realize you had that voice or the gift?

Yeah, it's really.

It sounds so cliche, but I think it's just something I was born with because I've always known my entire life that I've wanted to do this, and I've never ever had any doubt or any hesitation.

And for some reason, I kind of just knew what to do.

And I kind of went to my parents when I was 4 years old and said, I want to be a singer and I want to do this right now, and I want voice lessons and I want a manager and I want an agent.

I gave them a list of things and they were like, what are you talking about?

You're in preschool and we're not in music and we have no idea what to do.

And you know, there's not a single person in my entire family that's a musician.

And so I'm really like the only one.

And so no one was really sure what to do.

So they're like, well, I mean, let's put her in voice lessons and see what happens.

And so I started that when I was 4 years old and it grew from there.

What does it mean to have like, we've interviewed quite a few people and we've had a few people that have said, mom, dad, I want to be a rock star.

And they try to stir, steer them in a different direction, not catch the core.

His parents were like, goodbye.

But what is it like having that kind of, that backing of family members that say, yeah, let's do this together.

I was in a really kind of unique position because my parents are both artists.

My mom's a painter and my dad's a creative writer.

So they're very creative and so they understood being an artist, so they were very supportive immediately.

And I'm also an only child and they had me in their mid-40s, actually, so it's kind of just a different thing.

So they had more time to kind of understand what I wanted to do and focus on that.

So they put me in voice lessons immediately.

And then from there I started studying just really intense classical conservatory level program when I was seven and did that for like eight years.

So my entire childhood was just devoted to performing constantly and studying music all the time.

That's, that's quite Amazing.

They must be very proud.

Are they still involved?

Do they.

Are they worried because you are traveling.

You just told me when he walked in, you.

You came in with a suitcase.

And I'm going to take pictures of this because Ben's not going to believe this guitar case.

That's unbelievable.

We'll post that in a suitcase.

And I said, will you stay in for a while?

And she says, I'm flying out to Los Angeles tonight.

Because you said you go back and forth.

What do they think of their little girl going back and forth from LA to Nashville and this industry?

I think they're, like, probably moved to Nashville with me when I was 18 years.

My parents moved to Nashville with me from Woodstock when I was 18 years old.

So I really lived with them until this summer.

So this is my first time ever being on my own in this way.

And they came on tour with me and traveled with me, and this is really the first time that I'm traveling by myself.

So it's like the floodgates have totally opened, and I'm.

It's very different from what I'm used to.

Forbes magazine said to Stella, you.

I want to get the quote right.

Stella is the artist bringing folk music to Gen Z.

Couple of questions on that.

What is it like to have somebody say that about your music?

Number one.

And do you.

You don't feel like a pressure or of kind of carrying the mantle for a young, aspiring artist, young women to be looked up to?

Yeah, I know that's a great question.

And, you know, it's funny, I think that exact question.

I remember I watched an interview with Amy Winehouse when she was, like, 22, and someone asked her that exact question about, like, all the incredible jazz artists that came before her.

And she said, I don't see it as pressure.

I see it as an honor.

And I kind of feel like that's so true.

And I remember, like, thinking about that and putting it in my mind, because it's really not pressure.

It's just kind of an unbelievable honor to get to be compared to these unbelievable women who I am constantly looking up to.

And that quote in that article in Forbes, it was my first national piece of press, and it came out this past winter.

And I just remember when it came out, I was just absolutely blown away.

It was like just a total dream come true.

How did.

How did they get on your radar?

Or how is it just because you've been.

I mean, you're out there as a.

Even though you're independent, you are out there.

Social media Showing up everywhere.

I mean, I read that you walked the Grammys red carpet.

What is number one?

What's that like?

But how did they get on the radar of Stella Prince?

Yeah.

So this past year, you know, I've been doing everything myself for so long, and this past year is the first year that I really got my team together.

So that was totally through, you know, the amazing people that I work with.

And I kind of just, I mean, I've, you know, I've booked over a thousand shows all myself.

And it started really when I was 14, like 14 to 21.

And it's been just seven years of constant work and building without any help from anyone.

And just really in the past nine months, literally it's been nine months.

I finally got, you know, the manager and the branding and all.

Everyone just kind of came forward and it's really the biggest shift that I've ever seen in my life.

Like, I still remember the first week that everyone kind of came into my life.

I remember noticing how dramatic of a shift it was just to have that support from other people.

And it's like it's really life changing as opposed to doing every aspect of everything by yourself.

So I saw on your website Save the Music, the latest artist ambassador.

Will you tell me what that is?

Yeah.

Save the Music is a not for profit organization based in New York City.

And what they do is they bring music lessons back into schools for schools that have budget cuts and can't afford music lessons.

And it's huge.

And it's like one of the biggest things I think that I would want to advocate for because I know how important, I mean, that is for young people to get music lessons.

I mean, it's everything.

That is really good.

Yeah.

My son is in tuba and if he, he loves the tuba, but if he happens to go to a different junior high that he's in right now, they don't offer music.

Our daughter played violin.

She loved it.

But she went to a different school.

They had to cut it.

And it's really unfortunate and she asks all the time, but then you run into, she's busy.

How do you get her to music lessons?

But yeah, no, that's really important.

I'm just gonna ask one final one.

2026.

Okay.

We bumped it.

That's all right.

The good things we wait for.

Tell me about that.

Are there any songs that we can find?

Streaming YouTube?

Tell me how excited you are for it and what maybe a theme or go ahead.

Yeah, it's going to be really exciting.

And the amazing thing about it is that we're going to be recording it in Iceland, of all places.

We're recording it in January in Iceland.

Floki Studios.

Yep.

You knew it.

And it's really.

It's going to be like a couple weeks just going there and recording and under the northern lights.

It's going to be experience of a lifetime.

That is going to be amazing.

As our audience knows, me and Ben are big fans of Newport Folk Festival.

We go every year.

My favorite place on earth, my wife's favorite place on earth is that three day festival.

I just want to thank Stella for coming on.

This has been really great.

She came to me, y', all, like, this is how hungry she is.

And you guys got to check out her music because there's a timeless sense in the songwriting in the voice.

And I just want to hand it over to her for maybe a last, final word.

Go check out Stella Prince on her Instagram.

It's a great file music.

Well, thank you so much, first of all, for having me.

Yeah, no, I'd say the biggest thing is that I just released kind of my first single in over a year and it's a song that was in a Hallmark Channel movie that just came out like a couple of weeks ago.

And it's my version of the Carpenter song Close to youo, which is Karen Carpenter is my favorite singer really ever number one favorite.

And the song is one of my favorite songs and it was featured in one of the main scenes in the film and just premiered on Hallmark in late 70s September.

So that was like the number one most exciting thing that's happened in the past couple weeks.

And the song is out on all platforms.

That's so great.

Thanks, y', all for tuning into Americana Curious.

Please, please go check out Stella Prince and more from her later coming.

Hopefully she's not too big for us.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining Zach and I for this episode of Americana Curious.

This subscribe where you listen to your podcast so you are notified when a new episode is released.

I'm Ben Fanning and it's been great sharing these artists and music with you.

Until next time, stay Americana Curious.