Amythyst Kiah

Amythyst Kiah’s anthem “Black Myself,” from Songs of Our Native Daughters, her collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell, was nominated for a Grammy for Best American Roots Song and won 2019 Song of the Year at the Folk Alliance International Conference. Her Rounder Records debut, Wary + Strange, is a deeply immersive body of work that redefines the limits of roots music in its inventive rhythms and textures. Always at the forefront is Kiah’s storytelling around the trauma, at age 17, of losing her mother to suicide, and her own struggles to find a place to belong in the world. “For anyone who’s struggled with grief or trauma, or felt left out and weird and like they didn’t belong, I hope this album lets them know that they’re not alone in that feeling,” says Kiah. “I hope they understand the experiences I’m trying to relay to them, and I hope they come away from these songs knowing that they can heal from whatever it is that they’re going through.”