Lilly Hiatt
“The older I get, I realize I have to make the most of what’s around to be of any use,” says Lilly Hiatt. The singer-songwriter and stellar heartland-rock bandleader feels more zen than ever these days. But our current political chaos never leaves her mind. “There are still plenty of things that trouble me on a larger scale. I try to come through for the folks around me. Or I’m trying.”
A constant onslaught of disturbing headlines and viral videos is enough to pressurize anyone’s heart. So Hiatt seeks out art, family and interactions with strangers to keep her grounded and present most days. In her frequent world travels, she hasn’t learned everything, but being alone in places she’s not familiar with has offered her glimpses of what human kindness really looks like. “I hang onto that when I can,” she says.
Exercise, playing guitar and working her day job at Anaconda Vintage also anchor her. It’s been a year since her sixth studio album Forever and its meditations on long-term relationships dropped into the world, and she finds that love means even more to her now.
“Growing up, my family always told me, ‘Love wins,’” says Hiatt. “As time has gone on, and I’ve seen the power of that and what it can accomplish, I fully believe in love. My dad and mom told me that a lot, and it’s not as if their lives were a simple breeze. They’ve both been through a lot and acted out of that loving place often. I’ve seen what it brought into their lives, and it means a lot to me.”
Her relationship with the songs on the record seems to have naturally evolved a bit over the past 12 months, but she explains that the subject matter of a song is almost always something immediate. So you could say she’s trapped in those stories, from the luminescent glow of “Hidden Day” to the rhythmic growl of “Kwik-E-Mart,” until the floodgates burst open and she begins writing again. During the past year, she’s put pen to paper as a release valve for her throbbing anxieties and is “finally starting to like” some of what she’s written, she says with a laugh.
Hiatt has also found emotional release in music, TV and movies. “I seriously loved the show with Claire Danes, The Beast in Me,” she says. “It took me to a place and unlocked something. As far as albums, I just discovered Madeline Edwards and think she’s an incredible writer. The song ‘American Psycho’ [from her 2025 album Fruit] is brilliant. Lily Allen’s new music is blowing my mind; her new album West End Girl is, I believe, her best. I always lean fairly hard on The Brian Jonestown Massacre. And the record I probably wore out hardest last year is one from 2018: [BJM co-founder] Matt Hollywood & the Bad Feelings’ self-titled, and I especially obsessed over the song ‘Nobody’s Hurt.’ That song got me through 2025.”
Hiatt kicks off a slew of tour dates Feb. 7 with a set at Eastside Bowl during the second annual 615 Indie Live celebration of independent venues. (Read more about that in this week’s cover package.) The Southern leg of the tour is a full-band affair that takes her out to Texas, where she’s hoping to “crack the code” to draw bigger crowds to her shows. Then it’s on to solo shows in Canada in early March (after which she hopes to be “done with snow this winter — I’ve had my fill”) and another string of solo performances in the Midwest later that month. She’s sad to be leaving behind the camaraderie she feels on band gigs but looks forward to a kind of grounding quietness that surrounds those adventures.
“It’s also scarier in a way, though, because you really have to rely on yourself. Eventually, I’ll have someone go with me on solo runs. I love both experiences, and my favorite part is meeting the people who come to the shows.”
