SPOTLIGHT: Amythyst Kiah Sends a Flare from Rock Bottom in ‘Firewater’ [VIDEO]
Stacy Chandler
Posted On June 15, 2021
Photo by Sandlin Gaither
EDITOR’S NOTE: Amythyst Kiah is No Depression’s Spotlight artist for June 2021. Her new album, Wary + Strange, comes out this Friday on Rounder Records. Read our interview with Kiah here, and look for more about her and the new record all month long.
“Melancholy always seemed to work for me,” Amythyst Kiah sings to open the song “Firewater,” from her new album, Wary + Strange, coming out this Friday.
But as the song unspools, it becomes clear that maybe it’s not working out so well, and neither self-medicating nor well-meaning interventions seem to help either.
“How many spirits does it take to lift a spirit / I don’t know,” she sings before the song reaches its chorus: “Can you just leave me be? Being drenched in firewater won’t save me.”
The song takes us through a low point in Kiah’s life, and resonates with anyone who’s felt raw and numb at the same time, somehow. Hear Kiah perform the song for ND readers in the video below:
