Adeem the Artist, Mya Byrne and More Showcase Country Pride at AmericanaFest

On arriving at The Vinyl Lounge for Thursday night’s AmericanaFest showcase featuring queer artists, it was notable that the venue — across Fourth Avenue South from the fairgrounds and Wedgewood-Houston — was far away from the bigger festivities. The space was nice, and the sound was warm but crisp. Especially considering that several shows throughout the fest are billed specifically as amplifying queer perspectives, it felt odd that this show was so far off the beaten path from the rest of the fest, and that there was no real indication that the performers were members of the LGBTQ community. Gay musicians write insightful songs about lots of things in addition to ones about being gay, and certainly shouldn’t have to hold up a sign about their identity; still, suffice it to say the vibe was off a bit.

Alone onstage with his guitar, Willi Carlisle gave the crowd a real sense of what he’s about — and not just musically. He’s a charming storyteller, and every word that came out of his mouth, spoken or sung, was weighted with an undeniable earnestness. He ended his set with a church-camp-type call-and-response song about accepting others; maybe not the material you’d expect when a budding Americana artist shows up at youth group with an acoustic guitar.

Nick Shoulders took the stage next at 9 p.m., playing the final night of his tour. He plays the kind of country music you might hear at your grandmother’s house, or if you were a frequent listener to WSM in the 1980s and ’90s. His timeless, mellow croon came with a lot of world-weary lyrics. A friend — who is a big fan of Shoulders — once described him as the kind of guy who sings like Hank Williams while wearing a Cannibal Corpse T-shirt.

Mya Byrne’s 2022 single “Autumn Sun,” a standout from her 2023 LP Rhinestone Tomboy, was the inaugural release from Kill Rock Stars Nashville, the new imprint of the famed Pacific Northwest indie label. Those of us who spent a lot of our time listening to Universal Order of Armageddon and Team Dresch associate KRS with lo-fi recordings of incredibly noisy, obtuse punk acts. Byrne is not that. Her soulful Tricia-Yearwood-esque voice pairs with her immaculate guitar work and a nailed-down rhythm section. Byrne’s flavor of ’70s blues-informed country feels at times like music you hear in movies about over-the-road truck drivers — think Jerry Reed or Johnny Paycheck — paired occasionally with Jay Farrar-esque melodies.

Adeem the Artist, who you might recognize from the cover of the Scene’s AmericanaFest preview, was perhaps the closest artist to mainstream country — or at least mainstream country in an ideal world — on the bill. Adeem described themselves onstage as a “nonbinary, pansexual country musician,” and their voice and melodies hit in that prime Prine zone: a sweet spot that will always go over well with anybody who likes good songs. The Knoxville tunesmith took a few well-deserved shots at Marsha Blackburn, Bill Lee, white liberals who drive gentrification and even AmericanaFest itself for not promoting musicians from marginalized communities enough. The biggest surprise of the set was the closer, a solo acoustic cover of “Uptown Funk” that stayed pretty true to the original.

Cover Stories

AmericanaFest Preview 2023

• Scene Staff