Altoona native and Bishop Guilfoyle graduate Ellie Irwin has released her debut album, “Always Wanted It to Be You.” Courtesy photo

Altoonan Ellie Irwin has switched coasts and taken her music to Los Angeles, playing various venues and releasing a debut album since her May college graduation.

Released Aug. 23, “I Always Wanted it to be You,” has Irwin’s songwriting abilities front and center and is an independent effort with help from fellow Berklee College of Music alumni.

Her producer, Charlie Burket, and band mates all met while in Boston.

Burket did the production and engineering for “Always Wanted It to Be You” and played guitar, bass, banjo, violin and mandolin.

“Charlie helps me to hear what the songs are asking for. He helps me make decisions that suit the song best. He is one of the most talented musicians I know and plays on almost every song. I am so grateful that he has instrumentally added his voice to these songs, and for the process that he and I have created together,” Irwin stated in a news release.

The album was mastered by Dave Kutch, a 33-time Grammy nominated engineer who has worked with Billie Eilish, HER, Jay Z, Beyonce, The Weeknd and others.

In a phone call with the Mirror, Burket said Irwin’s vocal strengths are “a very concise and deliberate delivery in every aspect of her singing. In her delivery, pitch, rhythm — there’s a sense of intention that she always has.”

He also praised her organizational skills and said she was “super organized, made everything run smoothly and resulted in a great product. She’s a very good mastermind behind her artistic project.”

Burket said her songs “have a lot of depth that most people will be able to latch onto.”

Irwin, in a phone interview, said she wanted to “tell the story of a relationship. It’s nostalgic and bittersweet.”

The daughter of Altoona residents Joey and Becky Irwin and granddaughter of Tom and Lenora Irwin, Ellie Irwin is a 2021 graduate of Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School, where Tom Irwin coached football for 33 years starting in the 1970s.

The former coach can be heard speaking on the opening of “Good In This,” advising her that “the good in this will come. You have to have faith that the good will come.”

While the song is about the ending of a relationship, it ends on a positive note of “one day I’ll find the good in this goodbye.” It sets up the more optimistic “I Always Wanted It to be You,” which she said is set in a future where “everyone has moved on.”

Area residents may remember Irwin from her roles in P&J Productions, including as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” She pays homage to her times with P&J by including an overture that includes the various songs melodies — similar to what P&J would do musically prior to each performance.

Her drama work started as a child organizing “shows” at large family Sunday dinners where she would direct her cousins.

Her grandfather said “it was really nice of her” to include his spoken words during the song’s intro, which was inspired by a conversation the two had when “things weren’t going the way she wanted them to go,” Tom Irwin said.

The wisdom he imparted to his granddaughter comes from the perspective that “life is lived forward, but understood backwards.” Life’s struggles and disappointments “often turn out to be the best things. You have to have faith and it’s that faith that enables you to take a risk and a chance.”

He admires that his granddaughter, whom he described as a “hard worker” is “out there doing her best and following her passion.”

Irwin said she and her band are performing at various venues around L.A. “I love playing live. It’s a different side of the creative part of it.”

In the future, she hopes to go on tour opening for other artists, but the music industry has many opportunities available. She continues to write songs — she has enough written for a second and third album already.

And she’s enjoying being an independent artist, “As long as I can, I want to stay independent. I’ve learned I love to have a say in the creative direction and to have the final say.”

Staff Writer Patt Keith can be reached at 814-949-7030.

The Irwin file

Name: Ellie Irwin

Residence: Los Angeles

Family: Parents, Joey and Becky Irwin; grandparents, Tom and Lenora Irwin

Education: Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School Class of 2021; Berklee College of Music, Boston, Mass., with a

bachelor of music degree in songwriting, May 2024