Someone told this author a while ago to stop placing bets on local talent “making it outside of the scene.” Since writing about extremely localized music since Fall of 2020, there have been a few acts that shine so bright one could see them illuminated all over the world, not just this city. Take Jon Batiste for example. This year has seen him become an Academy Award-winner and a major part of a Disney Pixar film that made cinematic history.

Did anyone doubt his star would go very far? Perhaps…

There is a strange possessiveness to the local music scene. I often wonder if this is what Seattle had been like pre-1990. People love their local performers but don’t necessarily want to see them go.

All this was in my mind as I watched Lilli Lewis, fresh off of her Nashville performance at AmericanaFest that got her written up and recognized by none other than Rolling Stone. Lewis, originally from Athens, Georgia, is a Black queer Americana artist and her latest album, Americana, is set to drop on the 29th of this blessed autumnal month. She took the stage Thursday evening with Loose Cattle, the New York-to-New Orleans-based Americana band fronted by two-time Tony Award and Grammy winner Michael Cerveris and fellow musician and actor, Kimberly Kaye.

As I approached the Broadside, the outdoor offshoot of The Broad Theater necessitated by the mandates of the pandemic, a sweet ticket taker asked if I was certain I was here for the rock show. I assured him I was not looking for “trad jazz tonight” and we had a laugh. Two hot dogs and a rosé later courtesy of the venue’s awesome food truck, I watched Ms. Lewis address the audience in only that way Americana singers seem to be able to do.

As the fall sky began to tumble down into shades of orange and pink, she declared, “All my songs tonight are going to be about birds.” She hit the keys of her electric piano and the audience was soft and serene under her spell, her voice reverberating through the clouds of the North Rocheblave area. I hoped deep down inside that my dear friend a few blocks down could hear the voice of Lilli Lewis in the somewhat crisp air. Introducing a song about sparrows, the multi-potentialite singer mused about birds and their freedom. She mentioned the way in which birds are a harbinger of good things to come and pointed out that in the days before Ida, they were absent from the sky.

Lewis performed solo, some covers, and a drop dead gorgeous rendition of her song “My American Heart,” which is sure to be a breakout hit from her new album. She was eventually joined on stage by fiddler Rurik Nunan of Loose Cattle before the entire band joined her to perform a “lesbian murder song” and a song called “Copper John” about the houseless people she met while living on a prayer in Boston, Massachusetts following her dreams. Her songs were interlaced and interjected with tidbits of American folk wisdom, as Americana shows are wont to have.

“Y’all are my heroes is basically what I’m trying to say,” she quipped. She got in tune with Cerveris, Kaye and Co. and the day sunk down officially to night, only illuminated by the Broadside stage and the tiny quaint camping lights alongside the picnic tables. Breathless only coming up for air to sounds of applause, Lilli Lewis was the hero for this evening to the audience.

Live music has certainly changed under the spell of Covid and even the recent destruction of Hurricane Ida. But the energy for Lilli’s performance paired with that of Loose Cattle suggested to the audience, maybe the best is yet to come….

 

Lilli Lewis’s new album drops October 29. Follow Lilli on Twitter and Instagram @folkrockdiva. Check out photographer @donyae.develops via Instagram.