Doors at 6pm, performance at 7pm.

Two of the Willamette Valley’s best cultural organizations – World Beat and the Salem Art Association – have teamed up to create an extraordinary evening of music and entertainment. Encore! brings together an eclectic mix of Americana/alt-rock from headliner Amythyst Kiah, Latin beats from Pachanga, an opera song performance from Ellie Niver, and a musical land acknowledgment from Jan Michael Looking Wolf and Robin Gentlewolf – truly something for everyone! This special and unique evening is emceed by Bend artist/musician MOsley WOtta.

Don’t wait to get your tickets! All tickets are the same price so buy early to get the best seats in the house!

Headlining the evening is Amythyst Kiah. Her Rounder Records debut, Wary + Strange, marks the glorious combination of two vastly different worlds: the iconoclastic alt-rock that first sparked her musical passion and the roots/old-time music scene where she’s found breakout success in recent years, including recognition from Rolling Stone as “one of Americana’s great up-and-coming secrets.” With an unforgettable voice that’s both unfettered and exquisitely controlled, the Tennessee-bred singer/songwriter expands on the uncompromising artistry she most recently revealed as part of Our Native Daughters—an all-women-of-color supergroup whose Kiah-penned standout “Black Myself” earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best American Roots Song and won Song of the Year at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards.

“A lot of these songs come from a moment in my 20s when I was grappling with trauma while also trying to navigate the experience of being a Black and LGBT woman in a white suburban area in a Bible Belt town,” says Kiah, who grew up in Chattanooga and later moved to Johnson City. “I’ve had moments of feeling othered in certain aspects of my life, and it took me a long time to figure out who I wanted to be and how to move through this world.”

In bringing Wary + Strange to life, Kiah revisited another form of therapy: the powerfully cathartic records she turned to for solace as a child and teenager. “The way I listened to music when I was younger was very much based on trying to find some kind of healing,” she says. “The way that someone like Tori Amos took these incredibly personal things and expressed them with piano and vocals was spellbinding to me, and it was my dream to create something that evocative.”

With the arrival of Wary + Strange, Kiah aims to offer listeners the same sense of purposeful escape that music has long provided her, all while building an undeniable sense of communion with her audience. “For anyone who’s struggled with grief or trauma, or felt left out and weird and like they didn’t belong, I hope this album lets them know that they’re not alone in that feeling,” says Kiah. “I hope they understand the experiences I’m trying to relay to them, and I hope they come away from these songs knowing that they can heal from whatever it is that they’re going through.”

All proceeds from Encore! support the artists, musicians, educational activities, and cultural programs of World Beat and the Salem Art Association.