Today, Nashville-based singer/songwriter Kyshona has released her highly-acclaimed new album Listen. Co-produced with Andrija Tokic (St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Alabama Shakes, Hurray For The Riff Raff) and recorded mostly at his famed Nashville studio The Bomb Shelter, Kyshona’s album blends roots, rock, R&B, gospel, and folk with lyrical prowess to uplift the marginalized and bring awareness to the masses.
STREAM: LISTEN
Kyshona, who has performed at Folk Alliance International, AmericanaFest-UK, 30A Songwriters Festival, and in an art installation at Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, all in the last two months, has made an indelible impression with her new LP. “The explorations on her brand new album, Listen – which are synopsized neatly on the title track – by many other artists could have easily and offhandedly devolved into a reactionary, ‘woke’ gasp into the void,” commented The Bluegrass Situation. “Kyshona…is a deft and empathetic songwriter, a storyteller with a penchant for shameless self expression and graceful introspection. Listen is not an admonishment. It’s not an imperative, or an oracle-given ultimatum. Kyshona does not implore her audience to hear her, but each other. Over ten original and co-written songs the album carries on this mission with empathy, connection, community, and spirituality (but not proselytizing). It’s a remarkable feat that though society systemically attempts to render her and women like her invisible, assuming that they’ll stand aside or allow themselves to be tokenized, Kyshona compassionately defies those expectations and opts to design her selfhood – and thereby, her art – to interact with the world on her terms and not the world’s.”
WATCH: “LISTEN”
“Since completing this album, there has been a theme that keeps coming up: fear,” Kyshona told Billboard in their premiere of the album. “Fear of being ignored, fear of being seen. Fear of being misunderstood. Fear of being abandoned and alone. But every night I have walked on a stage or into a space and stood in that fear, I’ve been shown that I can not only conquer them, but that those fears allow me to connect with people. That’s what I have wanted this album to be: a reflection that allows connection.” “People feel permission. This allows them to feel they can have control, they can build a community through music,” Kyshona told The News & Advance of the connection she forges with her audiences. “Her new LP, Listen, released this month, asks the audience ‘are we even listening to each other?” continues The News & Advance. “Even when she’s writing about others, she said, their stories are also hers – ‘This is the gospel of the people.’ In a crowd of people, all with differing beliefs, political stances or conflicting ideals, it’s music, [Kyshona] said, that offers unity.”
WATCH: “FALLEN PEOPLE”
Kyshona has always lent her voice and music to those that feel silenced or forgotten. She began her career as a music therapist, writing her first songs with her patients – the students and inmates under her care. She soon found the need to write independently and find her own voice, an endeavor that led her to the fertile ground of the Nashville creative community and its collaborative songwriting culture. Kyshona has successfully melded her music career with her passion to heal the hurting; audiences will find a common thread of empowerment, overcoming adversity, and finding hope in her work. It’s for every silent scream, every heavy load, every fearful thought, and a simmering sense of anger that the repressed, the lost, and the forgotten try to hide from the world. “I’ve been thinking a lot about purpose,” she says. “When I write and when I perform I am often thinking of what my point is. What is my purpose? What is my mission? At this particular moment in these particular times, my mission is to be a voice and a vessel for those who feel silenced and forgotten.” After her powerful performances, concertgoers often ask, “What can I do?” Her response? “Listen.”
TOUR DATES:
3/5 – 20 Front Street – Lake Orion, MI
3/6 – The Robin Theatre – Lansing, MI
3/8 – Hines Hill Conference Center – Peninsula, OH
3/13 – WMOT Finally Friday @ 3rd & Lindsley – Nashville, TN
3/13 – Gray’s On Main – Franklin. TN
3/22 – The Frog Pond at Blue Moon Farm – Silver Hill, AL
3/24 – Tin Pan South 2020 – Nashville, TN
3/26 – Agnes Scott College – Decatur, GA
3/27 – Hendershot’s – Athens, GA
3/28 – Music On Malphrus – Bluffton, SC
4/3 – South Bay House Concert – Los Altos, CA
4/4 – Fog House Concerts – San Francisco, CA
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4/9 – National Folk Festival 2020 – Canberra, ACT, Australia
4/17 – 4/19 – Fairbridge Folk Fest 2020 – Perth, WA, Australia
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4/24 – Gray’s On Main – Franklin. TN
4/29 – White Gull Inn – Fish Creek, WI
5/1 – Severson Dells Nature Center – Rockford, IL
5/6 – Purple House Concerts -Tallahassee, FL
5/7 – WUWF Radio Live – Pensacola, FL
5/8 – The Rep Theater – Santa Rosa Beach, FL
5/22 – Kerrville Folk Fest 2020 – Kerrville, TX
6/7 – NPR Mountain Stage – Charleston, WV
6/21 – Chestnut House Concerts – Lancaster, PA
6/25 – Iredell Arts Council – Statesville, NC