Ruston Kelly has made a career out of writing songs about exorcising demons. Through it all, there’s always been the promise of hope. Pale, Through the Window, written in the wake of a spiritual awakening and newfound love, delivers on that promise. “I thought I wanted bliss, but I needed peace,” Ruston Kelly sings on “Still,” a track on Kelly’s most joyful and gratitude-forward album to date. Kelly found that peace one evening through a quiet moment spent playing the piano before bed. “Suddenly I felt overcome with gratitude for being able to play and sing,” Kelly shared in a press release. “My soul felt activated, and there was a sense of peace beyond anything I could describe.” The album traces Kelly’s life after that moment of clarity — from finding love with his now-fiancée Tia Cubelic, who plays violin on “House in the Country,” to the tender “Twisted Root,” which finds Kelly reflecting on his history with addiction and moving toward forgiving himself. Kelly makes it clear that happiness and tranquility don’t translate to having all the answers. “Even when you’re feeling so much joy, you’re still going to have those moments of questioning and doubting,” he says. “That’s what it means to be a human.” Kelly will bring his Pale, Through the Window tour to the Ryman Auditorium on Saturday, and there may be no more deeply cathartic way to celebrate surviving 2025 and being a little kinder to ourselves in 2026.
8 p.m. at the Ryman
116 Rep. John Lewis Way N.
