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Singer/songwriter Amythyst Kiah will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Dyson-Baudo Recreation Center, Marietta College.
Doors will open at 2:15 p.m. and the performance is free and open to the public.
Kiah's Rounder Records debut, Wary + Strange, marks the combination of two vastly different worlds: The iconoclastic alt-rock that first sparked her musical passion and the roots/old-time music scene where she's found breakout success in recent years, including recognition from Rolling Stone as "one of Americana's great up-and-coming secrets."
With an unforgettable voice that's both unfettered and exquisitely controlled, the Tennessee-bred singer/songwriter expands on the uncompromising artistry she most recently revealed as part of Our Native Daughters -- an all-women-of-color supergroup whose Kiah-penned standout "Black Myself" earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best American Roots Song and won Song of the Year at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards.
In bringing Wary + Strange to life, Kiah revisited another form of therapy: The powerfully cathartic records she turned to for solace as a child and teenager.
"The way I listened to music when I was younger was very much based on trying to find some kind of healing," she said.
"The way that someone like Tori Amos took these incredibly personal things and expressed them with piano and vocals was spellbinding to me, and it was my dream to create something that evocative."
At age 13, Kiah started writing songs on a Fender acoustic guitar from her parents; she later broadened her musical vocabulary by studying in the bluegrass, old-time country music program at East Tennessee State University.
Not long after self-releasing her 2013 debut, Dig, she began garnering acclaim from leading outlets like NPR and The New York Times, who remarked that Kiah's "razor-sharp guitar picking alone guarantees her a place among blues masters, but it's her deep-hued voice that can change on a dime from brushed steel to melted toffee that commands attention."
With the arrival of Wary + Strange, Kiah aims to offer listeners the same sense of purposeful escape that music has long provided her, all while building an undeniable sense of communion with her audience.
"For anyone who's struggled with grief or trauma, or felt left out and weird and like they didn't belong, I hope this album lets them know that they're not alone in that feeling," said Kiah. "I hope they understand the experiences I'm trying to relay to them, and I hope they come away from these songs knowing that they can heal from whatever it is that they're going through."
If you go
¯ Who: Amythyst Kiah.
¯ Where: Dyson-Baudo Recreation Center, Marietta College.
¯ When: 3 p.m. Sunday.
¯ Cost: Free and open to the public.
Source: Rounder/Concord Records.