You know you are in the right place in East Nashville on a Monday night when the headliner keeps inviting guests to the stage, you’ve never heard of any of them, and each one is better than the next.
To be clear, most of the younger, hipper folks in the crowd knew who the guests were. But we're new in town. We're still getting used to the fact that Nashville isn't just the home of big country music stars. It's a magnet for young talent from around the country. On any given night, a person who looks like they might have served you coffee earlier in the day - because they might have - can walk on stage and throw down a song that stops you in your tracks.
Make no mistake, Kelsey Waldon, the headliner, is an established performer with solid recordings behind her and a bright career ahead. She was great - I especially liked "Kentucky, 1988" - and we want to hear more. But it was the aforementioned parade of talented guests who lifted our spirits with the excitement of musical discovery.
I give myself credit for spotting this one in an email from Oh Boy Records – that’s the Oh Boy Records that John Prine founded in 1980. It still carries on after his death, with a roster of country and Americana artists like Waldon, a rootsy singer-songwriter who has been compared at different times to both Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. She was the headliner at the Basement East Monday, backed by a tight, smoking, five-piece band.
Tickets were only $15 bucks, with proceeds going to charity.
"I think this could be good," I told my wife. "I mean, this is John Prine's record company."
The evening was billed as “Home for the Holidays with Kelsey Waldon and Friends.” Waldon has talented friends.
The list included John R. Miller and Chloe Edmonstone, Jeremy Ivey, Caroline Spence, Michaela Anne and Vickie Vaughn. Miller and Edmonstone served up a lovely rendition of “Christmas in Prison,” the John Prine classic. Ivey shared a grim but powerful take on the holidays from the perspective of Nashville's homeless. All the guests were great. But the strongest, to us, were Justin Hiltner and Kyshona Armstrong.
Hiltner, I now know, is a sought-after banjo player based in Nashville. He’s also gay, and an outspoken advocate for greater inclusion in the bluegrass and roots/Americana community. After backing up Waldon on several songs, he stepped to the microphone for one of his own, which he told the crowd was the by-product of an unrequited crush.
“It’s been hard,” he said. “But the songs have been sooo good.”
He wasn’t kidding. “Pining Still,” was beautiful – a powerful lament over a lilting banjo.
Late in the set Waldon brought up singers Maureen Murphy and Nickie Conley, as well as Armstrong, all of whom she said had been recording with her for a new album out next year. The new songs, which Waldon said were played for the first time in public Monday, were soulful and driving, the back-up vocals adding strength and depth. I think it was after a song called “You Can Never Tell” that my wife leaned over and uttered a phrase that’s no doubt been heard in Nashville music halls many times before.
“That,” she said, “sounds like a hit.”
Waldon then asked Armstrong to step to the center-stage microphone, which she did after picking up a guitar of her own. I now know that she began her career as a music therapist, and is building a name as a powerful voice for healing and social change with her music. What I knew then was that I was listening to some sort of amalgamation of Odetta and Joan Armatrading – a rich, soulful range, singing purposeful music. Both songs she played – “Nighttime Animal” and “Listen” – had the audience spellbound.
Waldon’s band features Adam Duran on guitar, Alec Newman on bass, Ryan Connors on keyboards, Brett Ray Resnick on pedal steel, and Nate Felty on drums. Joining the group Monday evening was Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle.
A highlight of the evening was a short set of harmony-rich bluegrass songs, including the Prine classic “Paradise,” with Waldon joined by Hiltner on banjo, Sedelmyer on fiddle, and Vaughn on stand-up bass.
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