Amythyst Kiah opens her fall run in a 250-seat Des Moines listening room

The Chattanooga songwriter plays xBk Live on Sunday, Nov. 8, with Buffalo Nichols opening. It's the first night of the tour, and the smallest kind of room she could pick.

Before Amythyst Kiah heads to Milwaukee, Madison, the Twin Cities and Chicago, she starts here. Sunday, Nov. 8, at xBk Live is the first of seven dates on her current run, and Des Moines gets it in a room that holds 250 people.

Doors are at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. at xBk, 1159 24th St. Buffalo Nichols opens. Tickets run $23.36 to $50 through xBk Live's calendar and See Tickets. xBk calls itself a small performing-arts venue and listening room, and that's the right description for a night like this: a singer whose voice does most of the work, in a space built for people to actually listen.

Kiah is a singer, guitarist and banjo player from Chattanooga, Tennessee. A lot of people first heard her through Our Native Daughters, the group that made Songs of Our Native Daughters in 2019. Kiah wrote "Black Myself" for that record, and the song was nominated for Best American Roots Song at the 2020 Grammys.

Her most recent album, Still + Bright, came out in October 2024 on Rounder Records. Butch Walker produced it at his Nashville studio. Kiah co-wrote much of it, with collaborators including Tim Armstrong, Sadler Vaden and Sean McConnell, and the 12 tracks bring in guests like Billy Strings, S.G. Goodman and Avi Kaplan. Walker also co-wrote and sings on "Silk and Petals." The label's own pitch for the album was that Kiah "finds joy" on it, and that's a fair summary: it's brighter and more rock-leaning without losing the low, weighty voice that makes her who she is.

A singer whose voice does most of the work, in a space built for people to actually listen.

That shift matters for a room like xBk. Songs that were built with a full band and a producer like Walker get stripped back to what holds them up when you play them for 250 people on a Sunday. Expect the newer material next to her older songs, and expect to hear every word.

The opener is worth showing up on time for. Buffalo Nichols is a blues guitarist and singer, and pairing him with Kiah makes for a bill that sits squarely in the Americana lane xBk tags it with.

After Des Moines, the tour moves to Milwaukee on Nov. 11, Madison on Nov. 12, Minneapolis–St. Paul on Nov. 13 and Chicago on Nov. 14, then picks up again in January in Providence and the Pioneer Valley. Every one of those cities is bigger than ours, and most of them will put her in bigger rooms.

So this is the one to catch. Sunday, Nov. 8, doors at 6, music at 7, a couple hundred seats and a voice that fills them. Go early, get a drink, and leave your phone in your pocket.

Sources: xBk Live — Calendar (xbklive.com); Amythyst Kiah — official site (amythystkiah.com); Amythyst Kiah — About (amythystkiah.com); Amythyst Kiah Finds Joy On New Album Still + Bright, Out Oct. 25 Via Rounder Records — Shore Fire Media (shorefire.com); Amythyst Kiah — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Singer and Guitarist Buffalo Nichols Envisions The Blues for the Present - WNYC (wnyc.org)