Karissa Ella perform ‘Hometown Bar’ with family and friends  

• The country music star longs to travel the 504 miles back to her birthplace because she misses the open spaces and the people who live there.
• But Ella did just that in 2014 when she left her hometown of North Canton, Ohio, to start her journey toward realizing her frequently misinterpreted ambitions.
• The video for Ella’s most recent tune, “Hometown Bar,” which she co-wrote with her friends Reagan Russo, Cassidy Best, and Aubrey Tune, features her experiences loving and leaving her hometown.

The country music star longs to travel the 504 miles back to her birthplace because she misses the open spaces and the people who live there. She also misses Nashville, which is located in those wide-open spaces, and she misses Nashville’s surrounding communities. She could never have stayed, though, if she’s being completely honest with herself.

Her ambitions were simply too great for that location.

“It was an incredible place to be born and to be raised, and I miss it every single day,” says Ella, 26, in a recent interview with PEOPLE. “But when you come from a small town, people don’t really understand why someone would leave a stable life and stable income in order to try making it as a singer.”

But Ella did just that in 2014 when she left her hometown of North Canton, Ohio, to start her journey toward realizing her frequently misinterpreted ambitions.

“It’s a tough game,” she says of her professional journey thus far. “You work hard for your money. You’re playing gigs all the time and doing odd jobs.”

Nevertheless, Ella continues her rise toward country music stardom, and these days, those doubters from back home are some of her biggest fans. “They’re probably my biggest support system,” she says. “I love going home and playing my hometown shows.”

The video for Ella’s most recent tune, “Hometown Bar,” which she co-wrote with her friends Reagan Russo, Cassidy Best, and Aubrey Tune, features her experiences loving and leaving her hometown.

“I wanted to be very reflective and nostalgic with ‘Hometown Bar’ because that’s kind of the next step I’m entering with my music,” says Ella, who plans to put out an EP next year. “But honestly, you can interpret this song in a couple different ways, but for me it’s about wishing I could be home.”

The video for Ella’s most recent tune, “Hometown Bar,” which she co-wrote with her friends Reagan Russo, Cassidy Best, and Aubrey Tune, features her experiences loving and leaving her hometown.

“I wasn’t sure about putting that line in there because I didn’t want it to come across in the wrong way, but honestly it’s just reflective,” says Ella, who graduated from Belmont University in June 2018. “Everyone back in my hometown seems so happy, but if they could, would they leave? Did they have dreams of doing something else, but they decided to stay for some reason?”

“I don’t think they would leave even if they could, to be honest,” she says quietly. “They all are living a great life in my hometown and if I didn’t have to leave, I would probably still be there. I was just meant for something else.”

But Ella did go back to her old haunt, the ACM-nominated Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown, Ohio, for the one-day video shoot for “Hometown Bar,” which featured a lot of her old acquaintances.

“The music video just has all of these small little glimpses of life back home,” she says of the video that was brought to life by video producer & director Wales Toney. “It’s just so sentimental to me because I’ve gotten to play [the Dusty Armadillo] and visit there all the time. It’s just an important place to me. And now I have this video that I’ll always look back on.”

These precious moments are what Ella holds onto, especially as she navigates the bumpy path to success in the country music industry.

“It’s so easy to get caught up in the little things that don’t matter and compare yourself to other artists,” says Ella. “At the end of the day, you just have to go for whatever you want to do and stay in your lane.”

“The blinds of country music are blurred right now, which is great,” says Ella, who looks to artists such as Morgan Wallen, HARDY and Zach Bryan for inspiration on pushing those country music boundaries. “I think there’s room for it. It invites others into the genre. But at the end of the day, what makes country music isn’t a fiddle or a steel guitar. It’s the story you tell. I think a lot of artists are starting to pick up on that and get back into what country really means.”

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