A professed Southern gothic songster, Amethyst Kiah’s commanding stage presence is matched by her raw and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past. A graduate of East Tennessee State University, she studied old-time music and music performance, and it proved to be a pivotal period in her life as she transformed from a long-time closet musician into a well-rounded, captivating performer. Whether she is performing solo with banjo and acoustic guitar or a full band (Her Chest of Glass), Kiah’s toolbox is augmented by her scholarship of African-American roots music. Provocative and coolly fierce, her ability to cross the boundaries of blues and old-time through reinterpretation is groundbreaking.
Although they’re based in Nashville, Wild Ponies has always looked to Southwest Virginia—where bandmates Doug and Telisha Williams were born and raised—for inspiration. There, in mountain towns such as Galax, old-time American music continues to thrive, supported by a community of fiddlers, flat-pickers, and fans. Wild Ponies pays tribute to that powerful music and rugged landscape with their stripped-back album, Galax, which connects the Williams’ Nashville favorites (Fats Kaplin, Will Kimbrough, Neilson Hubbard, and Audrey Spillman) and revered old-time players from Galax (Snake Smith, Kyle Dean Smith, and Kilby Spencer). Recorded in the shed behind Doug’s old family farm in Appalachia, the project highlights Wild Ponies musical and geographic roots.
A professed Southern gothic songster, Amethyst Kiah’s commanding stage presence is matched by her raw and powerful vocals—a deeply moving, hypnotic sound that stirs echoes of a distant and restless past. A graduate of East Tennessee State University, she studied old-time music and music performance, and it proved to be a pivotal period in her life as she transformed from a long-time closet musician into a well-rounded, captivating performer. Whether she is performing solo with banjo and acoustic guitar or a full band (Her Chest of Glass), Kiah’s toolbox is augmented by her scholarship of African-American roots music. Provocative and coolly fierce, her ability to cross the boundaries of blues and old-time through reinterpretation is groundbreaking.
Although they’re based in Nashville, Wild Ponies has always looked to Southwest Virginia—where bandmates Doug and Telisha Williams were born and raised—for inspiration. There, in mountain towns such as Galax, old-time American music continues to thrive, supported by a community of fiddlers, flat-pickers, and fans. Wild Ponies pays tribute to that powerful music and rugged landscape with their stripped-back album, Galax, which connects the Williams’ Nashville favorites (Fats Kaplin, Will Kimbrough, Neilson Hubbard, and Audrey Spillman) and revered old-time players from Galax (Snake Smith, Kyle Dean Smith, and Kilby Spencer). Recorded in the shed behind Doug’s old family farm in Appalachia, the project highlights Wild Ponies musical and geographic roots.
