Willow Avalon at the Hi-Fi

It’s no surprise that Willow Avalon is a rising star in the world of country music, gracing the same stages as country icons that range across generations from Zach Bryan to Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. Avalon’s embodiment of old school country in intersection with her own brand of a feminist streak is both simultaneously revolutionary and traditional to country music, which is what renders her persona both captivating as well as enthralling.

The fourteen tracks on her new album, alliteratively entitled, “Pink Pocket Pistol,” consist of “Georgia Mile,” “God Help The Next One,” “Left The Bed Made,” “Thumbsucker,” “Hell in a Handbag,” “Hypothetically Speaking (feat. Kaitlin Butts), “Hex,” “Willy Won’t,” “Raining Inside,” “Work To Do,” “Hickest Woman,” “Easy on The Eyes,” “Cardinal Sin” (Featuring Jason Isbell), and of course the title cover, “Pink Pocket Pistol.”

Donning red hair, Avalon’s endearing, yet tough personality combined with a tendency for lyrics that are witty and poetic such as “eyes on the eyes, hard on the heart,” is what makes her a sensation to watch out for. All of this was demonstrated eloquently in her performance to a crowd of approximately two hundred people at The Hi-FI Annex in Indianapolis, Indiana this past Sunday October, 18th.

Located in an old fashioned yet up and coming enclave known as Fountain Square, iconic for its Coca-Cola Billboard and neon sign lined cigar shops along old brick buildings with picture perfect views of downtown skyscrapers soaring in the distance, the Hi-Fi is one of the most acclaimed performance venues in Indianapolis for bands touring. As Avalon headlined the show as the highlight of the night, her openers Nathan Bess and Abbie Callahan are not to be overlooked, as they are up and coming sensations in their own right.

Nathan Bess’s raspy and soulful demeanor are something reminiscent of Nathaniel Rateliff (of Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats), as he performed a few of his own tunes along with a tender, gritty cover of Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers.

After a break, Bess was followed by Callahan, whose sweet stage presence was not to be outdone by her existential outlook on life as embodied by her music, as she explored vices and the universal human urge to escape, which she managed to address the darker overtones of while nevertheless encapsulating with sweet, soulful lyrics. She confronted the contrast between having to close your eyes to escape and the childlike dreaminess of seeing unicorns, speaking to the darker undertones of using vices to escape to dreamlike states in spite of the surface level childlike amusement of it all.

While Callahan’s adventureness to say the least may be a departure from her Catholic upbringing in Iowa City, her fascination with the mystical nevertheless makes sense in this context. Unlike many other existential artists with a rebellious persona, Callahan’s boldness does not equate to bitterness, but rather a tender curiosity that is ever present in her stage persona and musical performances. She draws on wordplay across themes with “OptMYSTIC” and “Simon Says,” where she plays into similar feminist themes as Avalon.

As the air grew colder and crisper and the night settled, Avalon eventually graced the stage around 8 o’clock with a band composed of her guitarist, a bass guitarist, and a keyboardist, where she was greeted like a rock star by the audience. In somewhat of a contrast to Callahan, Avalon’s rustiness and grittiness grants her a musical maturity rare to musicians under the age of thirty, as Avalon is only 28. Avalon’s latest album, “Pink Pocket Pistol,” speaks crisply to the conciseness of the balance that she has struck, with a degree of warmth and grit, as she is playful, yet sassy and fightful.

As she plays into similar themes as Martina McBride in “Independence Day,” with her feminist streak, she maintains a lightness and fluffiness that renders the undercurrent of social commentary all the more palatable without pulling any punches. Plunging Into “Southern Belle’ Raisin’ Hell” from her inaugural full length album of the same name, Avalon delivers a mix of rock and pop with new country, encapsulating the entirety of her rough edged persona with rhyme and wit. It is no doubt that Avalon has a range of influences, from Bonnie Raitt and Roberta Flack to Lucinda Williams, Elvis Presley (as her first word was reportedly “Elvis”) and of course, Dolly Parton, who she boldly conjectures she is a lot like in “Hey There Dolly.”

Hailing from small town Carlton, Georgia, a town of approximately just 323 residents, Avalon’s breadth of musical influence is just as wide ranging as her travels, as she spoke openly in between sets of her ventures far and wide in search of musical stardom that took her from coast to coast. Relocating to Los Angeles and New York City, and eventually landing her home in Nashville, her journeys to the big city and back to small town America are reminiscent of small town legends such as John Mellencamp and many others.

Having been signed onto Atlantic Records in 2023, Avalon’s triumphs are not diminished by her finding solace and comfort in returning to her southern roots, which further authenticate her homegrown style. She grew up playing piano in the baptist church in a singing family of all women. Avalon cites her grandmother as one of her primary inspirations, as she wished for the world to hear the sound of her grandmother’s voice, which is one of her primary motivators as an artist.

Avalon’s set list has an emphasis on relationships struggles and heartbreak, with a healthy dose of dark humor in pieces such as “Hypothetically Speaking,” which centers on how to dispose of the corpse of a no good husband, “hypothetically speaking”, of course. She also offers variety in her addressment of relationship issues in the more tender and loving, “Thumbsucker,” one that stands out for having a sweet guy as a central character. Her central song, “Pink Pocket Pistol,” more bluntly takes on a no-good man who finds himself at the end of the barrel of her “pink pocket pistol”, a cautionary tale wrapped up into a provocative and catchy eerie tune that carries a haunting old western feel that whistles along.

In between sets, Avalon also had plenty of humorous stories to tell that not only demonstrate her small town background of which she has experience changing car parts, but her prowess as an all around American storyteller as well. In “Cardinal Sin,” she also offers up her own Jason Isbell impression (as he was not present) of whom she shares a duet with in the aforementioned tune, humorously reminding me of Waylon Jennings doing his own Willie Nelson impersonation in a solo rendition of “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.”

It is also worth shouting out the rest of Avalon’s band as well, as guitarist Max Thomas had a sick riff later in the set as bassist and bass guitarist Miles Waldman played magnetically as well as Indianapolis keyboard player Davey Allen. Allen, a local, has his own band named “Davey and The Midnights.” He has also performed with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and English Songwriter Eric Burdon.

With variety between comedy, brutality, sweetness, rock and roll, and a tender country twang that all composes a unifying theme, Avalon is already a legend in the making that I have a feeling getting to see in such an intimate setting as the Hi-FI annex will be a story in and of itself in years to come as she shoots to stardom.

Reviewed by Henry Holloway