Yola & Amythyst Kiah @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (pics, setlist)
Soulful country artist Yola released Walk Through Fire, her debut album, last year via Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label and it ended up garnering three Grammy nominations, including Best Americana album; she’s up for this year’s Best New Artist Grammy as well. She was in NYC last month for WFUV’s Holiday Cheer benefit, and returned Wednesday night (1/8) to play Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg, which was the second date of her 2020 North American tour.
Yola’s set drew primarily from Walk Through the Fire (the title of which came from an incident where she accidentally set herself on fire, she told the crowd), with a few cover tracks sprinkled throughout including The Beach Boys’ “Til I Die,” Elton John’s “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road,” Dan Auerbach’s “Stand By My Girl,” and Aretha Franklin’s “You Are All I Need to Get By.” She also mentioned that her manager called her the morning that the Grammy nominations were announced and couldn’t get past discussing the first nomination without crying, and in turn, Yola spent the whole day crying about her good fortune.
Opener Amythyst Kiah performed solo and recounted how she first met Yola in 2014 in Scotland, at a Dolly Parton tribute show. Kiah stuck primarily to her solo material, which she described as mostly breakup songs that did not reflect her current relationship with her girlfriend. She also played a cut (“Polly Ann’s Hammer”) from her album with Our Native Daughters, who put out their debut album in 2019.
Pictures from the whole night are in the gallery above and remaining Yola dates, a stream of her album and a picture of the setlist are below.
YOLA – 2020 TOUR DATES
FRI 10 JANUARY – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC, US
SAT 11 JANUARY – World Cafe Live – Downstairs – Philadelphia, PA, US
SUN 12 JANUARY – Horseshoe Tavern – – Toronto, ON, Canada
TUE 14 JANUARY – S.P.A.C.E. – Evanston, IL, US
WED 15 JANUARY – Fine Line – Minneapolis, MN, US
FRI 7 FEBRUARY – The Heights – Houston, TX, US
SUN 9 FEBRUARY – Kessler Theater – Dallas, TX, US
TUE 11 FEBRUARY – Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO, US
WED 12 FEBRUARY – The State Room – Salt Lake City, UT, US
SUN 16 FEBRUARY – The Crocodile – Seattle, WA, US
TUE 18 FEBRUARY – Venue-bc – Vancouver, BC, Canada
WED 19 FEBRUARY – Aladdin Theater – Portland, OR, US
FRI 21 FEBRUARY – Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA, US
SUN 29 MARCH – Bluegrass Underground PBS TV Taping – Sunday 2020 – Pelham, TN, US
FRI 15 MAY – Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC, US
SUN 17 MAY – Terminal West – Atlanta, GA, US
THU 11 JUNE – SUN 14 JUNE – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival 2020 – Manchester, TN, US
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photos by Ellen Qbertplaya
