Fri 4/12 @ 8PM
Amythyst Kiah called herself a “professed Southern Gothic songster.” The vocalist/ guitarist/banjo player from Johnson City, Tennessee is steeped in the traditional music of the south. She’s influenced by artists such as Big Mama Thornton, Jimmie Rodgers, Mahalia Jackson, Dolly Parton, Son House, Patsy Cline and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She has a degree in Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies from East State Tennessee University where she was the only African American in the program while she was there.
She’s taken all those influences and education and tossed them together on her 2013 solo album Dig and her 2016 full-band album, Amythyst Kaih & Her Chest of Glass. After touring with Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Giddens invited her to be part of her new Songs of Our Native Daughters release on Smithsonian Folkways, telling the stories African-American women in the 17th-19th centuries through original tunes.
Kiah is currently working on her third album, and you’ll be hearing a lot more about her. Don’t miss the chance to catch her at Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Happy Days Lodge. General admission is $24, $20 for Conservancy members, $10 for students and free for kids under 10.
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