ZOLA’s music mainstay Blake Braley to ring in the new year at his home bar

Spokane-native Blake Braley describes the lifestyle of a working musician as “doing the thing,” and he has quickly become one of the Lilac City’s most popular while doing so.

Although Braley has been a music lover for as long as he can remember, it wasn’t until after graduating from University High School that he began to take it seriously.

While at University, he met Tristan Hart Pierce in Spanish class. While Braley was more focused on sports, Hart Pierce was diving deep into the world of guitar.

After graduating, the two began to post cover songs with Braley on vocals and Hart Pierce on guitar. It wasn’t long before Hart Pierce moved to Nashville while Braley attended Eastern Washington University and began to learn the keys and guitar.

While at Eastern, Braley began to fall in love with music more and more. It was Hart Pierce who convinced him to truly give music a shot and attempt to go all-in.

It didn’t take long for the gamble to pay off.

Whether it was coffee shops or beginning to become a mainstay at venues, like ZOLA, Braley couldn’t get enough, from preparation to playing with the band he had formed (including Hart Pierce). Braley quickly found his own sense of style within R&B by combining the sounds of older soul records and more modern interpretations while also being his own distinctive groove.

Of the modern artists within the R&B and soul scene, one by the name of Allen Stone caught Braley’s attention early on. Not many stay as true to the genre’s roots as Stone does, and not many from the Inland Northwest do it at all; what isn’t there to love?

In 2017, the two met for the first time. Over the years, Braley and Stone began to form a friendship revolving around music – whether it was simply conversing at shows or sitting in with each other’s groups.

Into the 2020s, Braley and Hart Pierce began to sit in as Stone’s keyboardist and guitarist more frequently. This year, they both went on tour with Stone as full-time members of the band.

“I was nervous about it, but I really like it a lot,” Braley said about touring. “The whole Allen Stone crew and band is full of really awesome folks, which makes it even more fun and easier being out on the road.”

Although Braley has been playing outside of Spokane more frequently, he still finds a very special comfort playing week after week in town, even after all these years.

“It feels very supportive here in Spokane, everybody is rooting for each other, and I’m a big believer that doing the music thing is easier when you have that support,” Braley said.

Between playing with Stone, his own band, Hart Pierce’s band and a group by the name of Mister Sister, Braley stays busy. Among it all, it is still most likely you can find him playing at his second home, ZOLA, where he’ll be ringing in the new year on Tuesday night.

“Any chance I get to play music is a really special gift,” Braley said.