Parker Millsap, Lilly Hiatt, More End AmericanaFest Strong

Amid the barhopping and bustling nightlife along Woodland Street in East Nashville, fans flocked to The Basement East Saturday evening to wrap up AmericanaFest for the year. 

Trucker hats dotted the crowd as Kentucky-born singer-songwriter Hunter Flynn began the night with a down-home country performance previewing his debut LP Roots (due Oct. 30). It came complete with fiddle and plenty of personal anecdotes paired with each song. 

Nashville’s Lilly Hiatt took to the stage next with a set of country-inspired indie rock packed with power-pop melodies. Highlights included “Trinity Lane,” the titular song from her 2017 breakthrough record, named for the East Nashville thoroughfare where she lived at the time. She told the crowd it’s her favorite road in town, and called out the particularly quiet audience. 

“That’s my favorite thing about Americana week, though,” Hiatt said. “I am a songwriter, and y’all do like the words. It means a lot. Shit you wrote just hanging out in your kitchen, feeling sorry for yourself — it’s reaching people.” 

Hiatt closed out her performance with a new and instantly catchy song called “Crystals.” 

This was right before a soulful, bluesy set from Parker Millsap. For part of it he sported a comically large cowboy hat, which he explained was inspired by the tide of festivalgoers in Western headgear (but who might know more about hatmakers than livestock) rolling into town each September. Raised in Oklahoma, the longtime Nashvillian stretches the big-tent definition of Americana, incorporating synthesizers and groovy classic rock influences into his work — especially prevalent on his most recent album, 2023’s Wilderness Within You.

At 11 p.m., 22-year-old Athens, Ga., singer-songwriter Julia Barfield closed out the night. She played a solo set of intimate, tender and hopeful songs about missing your hometown — along with another she said was written after cleaning the bathroom at Athens’ 40 Watt Club. Her show included a performance of “Keep to Me,” the titular song of the debut EP she released last year. Barfield concluded with the heartfelt  “Lathemtown,” which closes Keep to Me. She gave us some words of empathetic wisdom (and University of Georgia fandom) to carry with us.

“Be good to each other, be kind as much as you can be — and go Dawgs,” she said with a laugh.

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