Adrianne Lenker wasted no time telling 2,400 Big Thief fans that this was not, in fact, the show they expected to see. “We have a special night for you,” she said as Big Thief took seats around a large wooden table onstage, then quipped: “If you had hopes of hearing songs you know, those can be discarded.” Instead, Lenker matter-of-factly explained that Big Thief had convened in Nashville in May to record a triple album called Horsepower. She didn’t divulge any release details, but suddenly the weekend’s shows at Nashville’s hallowed Ryman Auditorium were something else entirely: the band and various guests playing through the whole album, in a sprawling three-hour show, filmed for future release.
It was indeed a special night even by Big Thief’s prolific and free-spirited standards, as they're known for playing unreleased material. In 2019 I saw them two days after they released the massively acclaimed U.F.O.F., but half the setlist was songs from the then-secret sister album Two Hands. Big Thief played 29 songs last night, with only a few performed previously. (The title track, for example, was debuted three-and-a-half years ago, while “Sadness As A Gift” appeared on Lenker’s 2024 solo LP Bright Future.) Big Thief fans are devout. The atmosphere was rapt when the band ran through the pensive new songs, but joyous in the album’s occasional raucousness.
Big Thief did not perform Horsepower in sequence, but instead arranged a dramatic build to the show. In the beginning, Lenker sang the album’s spare title track, solo with an acoustic guitar. Then the band came in for two more slow-burn songs. Four in, they had been joined by pedal-steel player Russ Pahl and fiddlers Richard Bowden, Hannah Read, and Zosha Warpeha for the floaty and gorgeous “Space And Time.” Then, Greg Leisz joined, also on pedal steel, he and Pahl swapping from those to guitar depending on the song. Then Iris DeMent sat next to Lenker and didn’t leave her side for the rest of the show, adding her voice to the band’s harmonies. And then, Gillian Welch sat next to DeMent, she too lending her voice as well as some well-placed banjo and tambourine. Somewhere around 50 minutes in, Lenker said: “Now we’re getting there. It feels like a dream.”
They pulled off a neat trick: Rather than one-off guest appearances, the band kept growing until 11 musicians flanked the stage, making you wonder if this is how the album itself was born some months ago — just people in a room, singing and figuring out the material on the fly. And as more people joined, the songs blossomed and picked up speed. There were autumnal cascades of electric guitar from Buck Meek, pulling some songs towards Big Thief’s dreamier side; one with Lenker on Wurlitzer had a more sinuous groove that almost recalled a kind of ‘90s alt-singer-songwriter vibe.
But mostly, the country influence that’s cropped up in past Big Thief albums was embraced fully. There were plenty of spacious ballads (“Avalanche, Hurricane” was particularly beautiful), a few country-rock almost-ragers. The string players went from atmosphere to rapid-fire fiddle parts. One song I have to imagine is the one identified as “Spatchcock Chickenshit Bingo” on the setlist featured half the band (and then the audience) stomping and clapping as Lenker almost talk-sang her way through a bunch of wordplay like a proper barn hootenanny. The first set closed with a powerful refrain in “Where Will We Go,” the second set featured a dedication to Lenker’s girlfriend for “6-7-8-9 She’s Fine,” a song I have stuck in my head after hearing only once.
There was something charmingly ramshackle in moments, as the band figured out some of this in real time — Lenker forgetting the chords to one passage prompting a restart, a bit of guitar technical difficulties. Lenker admitted she was nervous making her way through all this new material. Mostly, it was a pristine kind of lived-in, the songs just a bit ragged and with plenty of room to unspool, amplifying the sense you were invited into the band’s hang with their local musician pals.
Finally, after two hour-plus sets, the band returned for an encore featuring the remaining three songs from Horsepower and also featuring their last guest, Lucinda Williams. The Ryman accordingly lost its mind when she walked onstage.
Their final song of the night was one Lenker had written during the recording of the album, about the recording of the album, titled “Gift Pleasure Joy.” You could feel it radiating off the stage, how excited the band were to have made an album this way, with these people. And, in turn, the Big Thief fans who walked into the Ryman expecting setlists akin to the recent tour stops instead got a rare experience themselves: the first glimpse of where the ever-changing, ever-evolving Big Thief are going next.
Check out last night's setlist, and photos by Genesis Báez, below.
SETLIST
Set 1:
"Horsepower"
"Baby Honey Sweetheart Darlin'"
"Wait A While"
"Space And Time"
"21"
"Casual Touch"
"Muscle Memory"
"Highway"
"Stay"
"Carry"
"Sadness As A Gift"
"True Love"
"Where Will We Go"
Set 2:
"Beautiful World"
"Faker"
"Loneliest Boy"
"Happiness"
"Oldest"
"Bright Future"
"Beautiful Powerful"
"Avalanche, Hurricane"
"Snail"
"Spatchcock Chickenshit Bingo"
"Trade Tomorrow"
"6-7-8-9 She's Fine"
"These Are The Days"
Encore:
"No Matter What"
"Born For Loving You"
"Gift Pleasure Joy"
