Lilly Hiatt

Rootsy singer/songwriter Lilly Hiatt had a lot to live up to when she chose to make music her career — her father is John Hiatt, one of America’s leading songwriters since the ’70s.

The search for answers—where she’s been, who she’s become, what it all means—lies at the heart of Hiatt’s striking new album, Forever. Written and recorded in Hiatt’s new home just outside Nashville, the collection grapples with growth and change, escape and anxiety, self-loathing and self-love. The songs are intensely vulnerable here, full of diaristic snapshots and deeply personal ruminations, but they’re also broad invitations to find yourself in Hiatt’s unflinching emotional excavations, to see your own humanity reflected back in her pursuit of something larger than herself. Hiatt cut the album with her husband, Coley Hinson, who produced and played most of the instruments on the record, and the result is a raw, unvarnished work of love and trust that walks the line between alt-rock muscle and singer/songwriter sensitivity, a bold, guitar-driven, at times psychedelic exploration of maturity and adulthood from an artist who wants you to know you’re not alone, no matter how lost you may feel.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Tennessee, Hiatt first earned buzz with a pair of early solo records before breaking out with 2017’s Trinity Lane. Produced by Shovels & Rope’s Michael Trent, the record helped Hiatt earn dates with the likes of John Prine, Margo Price, Drive-By Truckers, and Hiss Golden Messenger in addition to festival slots everywhere from Pilgrimage to Luck Reunion. NPR called the album “courageous and affecting,” while The Independent raved that it showcased Hiatt’s “gift for unpicking knotty lyrical themes in a personalised blend of countrified rock music,” and Rolling Stone hailed it as “the most cohesive and declarative statement of the young songwriter’s career.” Hiatt delivered on the album’s promise with her similarly well-received 2020 follow-up, Walking Proof, and, unable to tour due to the pandemic, quickly returned to the studio again for 2021’s Lately, which The Boston Herald said showcased her “knack for plainspoken, poetic lyrics” and Uncut proclaimed to be “captivating.”


Beth Bombara opens.
It’s not that it’s retro, really, but there is something of a different era about her music – it has an earnestness to it, an organic depth that feels natural and easy. The Columbia Tribune notes, “Her songs live in the same world as greats like Petty and Dylan; Gillian and Joni, and grow up like trees drawing nourishment from their roots.Bombara spent years on the road in other bands before encouragement from peers led her to start writing and performing her own music. “I never set out to be a lead singer,” she admits. I struggled with anxiety and talking into a microphone just froze me up.” With her new album It All Goes Up (out on Black Mesa Records) she continues to impress, taking on the role of frontwoman, songwriter and producer. Her songs have been played on radio stations coast to coast, and landed a spot as a featured artist on BBC Radio.
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