Amythyst Kiah is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter known for blending roots music with rock, blues, and alternative folk. A member of the acclaimed supergroup Our Native Daughters, she brings powerful vocals and deeply personal songwriting to themes of identity, loss, and resilience. We will welcome her to the Opera House stage on Friday, September 5, at 7:30 PM. Doors will open at 6:30 pm. Tickets range from $30 to $40 (plus taxes and fees) and will increase by $5 on the day of the show. Friends of the MPOH will have access to tickets starting Tuesday, July 1 at 8:00 am, and the general public on Tuesday, July 15 at 8:00 am.

Produced by Butch Walker (Taylor Swift, Green Day, Weezer) and recorded at his Nashville studio, Amythyst Kiah’s new album Still + Bright explores the vast expanse of her inner world: her deep-rooted affinity for Eastern philosophies and spiritual traditions, a near-mystical connection with the natural world, the life lessons learned in her formative years as a self-described “anime-nerd mall goth.” In dreaming up the backdrop to her revelatory storytelling, Kiah and Walker arrived at a darkly cinematic and exhilarating twist on the rootsy alt-rock of her 2021 breakthrough album Wary + Strange—an LP that landed on Rolling Stone’s list of the 25 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2021 and drew acclaim from major outlets like Pitchfork. With its sonic palette encompassing everything from fuzzed-out guitars and industrial-leaning beats to gilded pedal steel and Kiah’s exquisitely graceful banjo work, Still + Bright fully affirms her as an artist of both daring originality and uncompromising depth.

On Wary + Strange, Kiah offered up a collection of spellbinding songs detailing her experience with grief, trauma, and alienation, each illuminating the extraordinary impact of her songwriting. An electrifying showcase for her singular musicality and soul-stirring voice, Kiah’s Rounder Records debut soon found many leading critics hailing her as a formidable new talent, adding to a list of accolades that includes earning a Grammy nomination for her powerhouse anthem “Black Myself.”  Although Kiah’s third full-length marks a departure from the anguished emotionality of its predecessor (an album informed by losing her mother to suicide at age 17), Kiah imparts all of Still + Bright with a hypnotic intensity born from boldly stating her convictions. To that end, the LP opens on the stormy grandeur of “Play God and Destroy the World”: an immediately captivating coming-of-age tale featuring guest vocals from Kentucky-bred singer/songwriter S.G. Goodman. With its title taken from a song Kiah penned and performed at a talent show in high school, the hard-charging track dispenses a bit of searing commentary on the hypocrisy she witnessed throughout her childhood—and ultimately speaks to the sense of hope and possibility she discovered in unexpected places (e.g., the humanistic sci-fi of The Matrix).

On songs like “S P A C E,” Kiah turns inward and ponders her search for peace of mind in times of maddening uncertainty. “As someone whose identity is tied up in being a touring musician, the pandemic created a lot of anxiety where I started questioning who I was if I wasn’t out on the road,” says Kiah. “There were moments when I dealt with that by scrolling through Instagram, but over time, I started to treasure the quiet. Meditation became an important part of my life, and I eventually wrote ‘S P A C E’ about learning to be more present.” Partly written on banjo, “S P A C E” unfolds as a soulful outpouring laced with lush mandolin lines, lovely fiddle melodies, and a powerfully soaring vocal performance from Kiah. “One of my main goals for this album was to show a new side of myself as a singer,” she notes. “I’ve always loved really strong, gospel-style vocals, and I put a lot of work into increasing my range for this record.”

All throughout Still + Bright, Kiah reveals her rare ability to spin her fascinations into songs, uncovering essential truths about human nature. On “I Will Not Go Down,” for instance, she looks back on a barbaric moment in history and unleashes a furiously stomping folk epic, featuring background vocals and nimble guitar work from bluegrass phenomenon Billy Strings. “I read about the Crusades in high school, and I was disgusted at the prospect of coercing people into spilling an unimaginable amount of blood and brainwashing them into believing they were serving their god—when in fact they were simply doing the bidding of warmongers,” says Kiah. “I wrote the chorus in my high school journal, and it became a song about people-pleasing to a fault, then reclaiming your autonomy and finding a balance between serving yourself and serving others.” Meanwhile, on “Silk and Petals,” Ellen Angelico’s feverish guitar tones merge with strangely euphoric grooves in a gothic love song sparked from Kiah’s viewing of the supernatural horror-drama of The Haunting of Bly Manor. “‘Silk and Petals’ was inspired by the story of the Lady in the Lake, the ghost of a woman named Viola Lloyd,” Kiah explains. “I wrote ‘Silk and Petals’ thinking about the idea of ghosts being unable to leave this realm because they’re hanging onto something they’ve lost, and the song came from being so intrigued by that very intimate intermingling of love and death.”

For Kiah, the making of Still + Bright involved a careful transformation of the songwriting process she adopted after composing her first song on a Fender acoustic at age 13. The latest turn in a dynamic career that’s included joining Our Native Daughters (an all-women-of-color supergroup also featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell), the album marks her first time opening up her approach and working with co-writers, including punk legend Tim Armstrong, Sadler Vaden (a guitarist/vocalist for Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit), former Pentatonix member Avi Kaplan, and Sean McConnell (a singer/songwriter who’s also written with Brittney Spencer and Bethany Cosentino). “In a way, I almost felt like I had to relearn how to write songs, because the experience had changed so much for me after taking better care of my mental and physical wellbeing over the past few years,” she says. “It felt completely different to write from a place of fulfillment and wanting to have fun with what I was creating.”

While Still + Bright undoubtedly finds Kiah pushing into new emotional and musical terrain, the album also makes for a vital new addition to a body of work largely dedicated to exploring the struggle and joy of true self-discovery. “With all of my music, I’d love to leave people with the feeling that it’s okay to go off the beaten path and to structure your life in a way that feels right to you,” says Kiah. “And just like with the last record, I hope that these songs can help people out if they’re going through a difficult time. That’s what I always hope for more than anything: for my music to continue to be a part of the healing process for anyone who might need it.”