Tuesday at AmericanaFest is a preamble – it just happens to be one that includes amazing people-watching and some of the best music you’ll hear anywhere. Let’s take a look back at Night One of Nashville’s best week.
BMI Presents Rooftop on the Row
This official kick-off party, held by the venerable music right organization, is a fun, boozy table-setter for the week. In recent years, artists like The War and Treaty and Billy Strings have found this event to be a jump-off point to a wider audience. This year, it’s 23-year-old Oklahoman Wyatt Flores who finds a rocket attached to his career. Before that, we were treated to the Hanseroth Twins, fresh off an appearance at Red Rocks (opening for their longtime bandmate, Brandi Carlile) and promoting their new record, Vera. Next up was a solo acoustic set from Kade Hoffman. From the Eastern Plains of Colorado, Hoffman’s spare, workman-like songs hue much closer to Colter Wall than John Denver. Honky-tonker Emily Nenni was next. The California native, who toured with American Aquarium last year, was backed by members of Teddy and the Rough Riders, and they brought a little dancin’ to the evening with tunes like “Drive & Cry.”
Flores, the evening’s headliner, took the stage with a full six-piece band, highlighted by fiddle player Kenzie Sue Miracle. Despite not having a full-length record out in the wild (Welcome to the Plains comes out October 18), Flores already has an Americana Awards Emerging Act nomination to his name, and he has an easy command of the stage that artists with years in the business would envy. He played to the crowd by combining Jason Isbell’s “Traveling Alone” into his own “Milwaukee,” and he also played “West of Tulsa,” a surprisingly vulnerable song that emphasizes his skills – young, extraordinarily talented, and casually good-looking. In short, he is DANGEROUS, and I’m looking forward to seeing him take over Nashville.
Cannery Hall
After a high-elevation start to AmericanaFest, the next stop was Cannery Hall, a multi-venue space constructed in a 140-year-old mill and processing plant. There were multiple musical options – Iron & Wine was performing on Mainstage downstairs. After taking in some indie folk, we ventured upstairs to check out Jason Eady on Row One Stage. I’d seen him play a couple of solo shows in Colorado, but this was my first full-band experience – turns out these Texans rock! Following a chilled-out, vibey set from Nashville’s Sophie Gault, night one capper Gabe Lee took the stage. One of Americana’s best storytellers, Lee sings about early-onset dementia and surprisingly helpful strangers with empathy, and his band – women and men – is something common this week in Nashville, but not so much the other 51 weeks of the year. Lee, the son of Taiwanese parents, asked us “What’s more American than an Asian-American kid singing sad songs?” And he’s got a point – songs, especially sad ones, are a universal language.
Check the festival here: http://www.americanamusic.org
