Wary + Strange

As part of Rhiannon Giddens’ 2019 project Our Native Daughters, the Tennessee singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah earned a Grammy nomination for best American roots song for ‘Black Myself’. Here, the song’s original acoustic treatment gets a stonking rock makeover, as Alabama Shakes might have reimagined it. Elsewhere a panoply of roots-based styles are given a contemporary update by a band that includes long-time Prince bassist Wendy Melvoin, guitarist Blake Mills, who played on Bob Dylan’s 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways, and pedal steel guitarist Rich Hinman.

A versatile stylist, she shifts effortlessly between sounding like an authentic blues mama on ‘Fancy Drones (Fracture Me)’ and coming on like a black Loretta Lynn on ‘Ballad of Lost’ while her subject matter is unflinching. ‘Wild Turkey’ is about the aftermath of her mother’s suicide by drowning in the Tennessee River. ‘Firewater’ is a defiant commentary on being a black LGBTQ+ woman in redneck country. ‘Hangover Blues’ is about her struggles with substance abuse. Reportedly Kiah had already recorded the album when she met producer Tony Berg, who helmed Phoebe Bridgers’ much feted Punisher album. She then scrapped it and started again – and you can hear why in every nuance of Berg’s sparkling production.