Izzy Burns, who started playing gigs at 11 in Moscow, Idaho, returns to Inland Northwest as part of album release celebration

With an album release on the way, one of the Inland Northwest’s own is making a homecoming with a pair of performances.

Izzy Burns was born and raised in Moscow, Idaho. It was here that she spent the first few years of her life essentially voiceless after falling ill with pneumonia and needing a tracheostomy (as well as several other airway surgeries) in order to breathe.

“As a baby and a little kid, having surgeries and things like that, not being able to breathe, was really scary,” Burns said. “Probably more scary for my mom, because she remembers it more.”

To calm the nerves of both parties, Burns’ mother would often play the music of artists like Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt. Between constantly being surrounded by her mother’s favorite songs and having a blues guitarist grandfather who essentially handed her a guitar from birth, a musical lifestyle is the only one she has known.

Soon Burns was a young child in her room, discovering the beauty of musical creation by attempting to sing and play the guitar – even though her vocal issues made singing inherently difficult and frustrating. But with the help of Claudia Krone, a voice teacher at the University of Idaho, singing properly and healthily became a reality.

By just 11 years old, Burns was performing at Moscow Alehouse for her first of many local open mic shows. It didn’t take very long for the young singer to form connections with her (albeit much older) musical peers and truly become a member of the town’s tight-knit scene.

“I learned so much being surrounded by more talented musicians who really took me under their wing,” Burns said. “I was just so welcomed in by the music community of Moscow and the Palouse in general, I really attribute that to most of my music career and wanting to pursue music, feeling that strong sense of support.”

All these years and a plethora of surgeries, types of therapy and medications later, Burns has a firm grasp on her ability to properly perform despite her vocal struggles. She is careful to warm up and stay aware of her singing to make sure she doesn’t overdo it to the point of further damage.

Even through all the extra effort, these vocal challenges have not discouraged Burns. In fact, they have had quite the opposite effect.

“I’m so grateful to have a voice and have the opportunity to share my voice and story through music, because I knew at one point I couldn’t,” Burns said. “I don’t take my voice for granted and I think that it makes me feel more motivated to do as much as I can with what I have.”

It is with this voice that Burns has made a new record set to release on July 25, “Diary of a Hopeless Romantic,” with a new single from the project, “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” being released July 18. The 10-track folk-pop album tells stories of navigating one’s own youth, the trial and error of being in her early 20s, a willingness to be vulnerable and the rollercoaster that is romance.

“There are some very vulnerable songs on there that are raw, but I think important to telling the story of someone who, like me, is a musician and very much an optimist and a romantic,” Burns said. “Going into the real world with that mindset can be kind of jarring, but I think the music has helped me navigate through that.”

Burns recently graduated from Colorado Mesa University, where she played beach volleyball for the school and graduated with a degree in music and elective studies in business. Burns has also been on her first proper tour with an Americana band, the Hipocrats, which has taken her to places like Boston in the east and Savannah, Georgia, to the south. But now she is returning home to the Inland Northwest to play the Chameleon on Wednesday and Moscow’s Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre on Thursday (along with the Hipocrats).

“It’s like a fun job to do, because it’s a gig, but it’s even more exciting because I get to play in front of the people that have known me since I was a baby and a little kid and seeing me at open mics,” Burns said.