Amythyst Kiah at the Adler Theatre -- June 5.
Saturday, June 5, 7:30 p.m.
Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
With NoDepression.com raving about her “significant vocal and guitar talents” and musical style that's “dynamic yet haunting,” Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Amythyst Kiah headlines the latest event in the 2021 Adler Theatre Foundation Series, a special evening devoted to the artist's solo repertoire and her contributions as part of the all-women-of-color super-group Our Native Daughters.
A native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who currently lives in Johnson City, Kiah is a graduate of East Tennessee State University, where she completed the Bluegrass, Old -Time, and Country Music Studies program. Musically accomplished on guitar and banjo in addition to being a superior singer/songwriter, Kiah has been able to expand on her uncompromising artistry as part of Our Native Daughters, an ensemble created to address American historical issues that have influenced the identity of black women, including slavery, racism, and sexism. With the quartet also composed of Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell, the album Songs of Our Native Daughters was released in early 2019, and went on to earn composer Kiah a Grammy Award nomination for Best American Roots Song, with the release also named "Song of the Year" at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards.
Recently, Kiah has been particularly acclaimed for the studio version of “Black Myself,” which was recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, and which blends the iconoclastic alt-rock that first sparked the artist's musical passion with the old-time-music aspect of the traditional roots-rock scene. Reviewing the song for NPR, Jewly Hight wrote, "Jabbing each line of the bluesy, mulish melody and supported by her bandmates' gospel-style harmonies, [Kiah] depicts the simmering defiance of self-respect in the face of racism. In the song's most pointed confrontation, she inverts sacramental language familiar to Christian slaveholders: 'Is you warshed in the blood of your chattel? 'Cause the lamb's rotted away.'" Country Universe, meanwhile, deemed Kiah's song “one of the finest records of the past few years,” adding that in the studio reinvention of “Black Myself,” Kiah “infuses her composition with righteous anger and a gripping urgency.”
Amythyst Kiah's Davenport performance on June 5 opens with sets by singer Ashley Dean, a Quad Cities native, and the area's hip-hop/soul duo Soultru, who are signed to the Kansas City label The Record Machine. Admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert is $22-32, and tickets are available by calling (800)745-3000 and visiting AdlerTheatre.com.
