For Yola, knocking down doors for fellow artists goes hand in hand with illuminating and honoring a pioneer of modern popular music.

“They call me the door kicker,” she says, punctuating her words with a hearty laugh. “It felt like a real moment where I was kicking another door down, and Allison Russell and Devon Gilfillian were able to walk through and usher in a lot of people.” The singer/songwriter/guitarist is speaking about the two tour-opening performances she’s just given at the famed Ryman Auditorium in her adopted home away from home, Nashville (she hails from Bristol, England).

Yola had wanted to share a bill with Russell and Gilfillian for quite a while, and this was an historic opportunity to do so. “I know they haven’t had a wealth of Black women headlining the Ryman, full stop,” she acknowledges. “Certainly not with Black openers.” The concerts were packed and the attendees were diverse, delighting the singer. “The crowd looked wonderfully mixed,” adds Yola. “It’s kind of my Technicolor love-in, which is what I’m really trying to usher in here, you know?”

The tour, in support of the heralded, genre fluid, Grammy-nominated sophomore album “Stand For Myself,” calls at The Eastern on Saturday, March 19, with an opening set from Jac Ross.

As important as creating that empowering lineup at the Ryman for Yola is her upcoming appearance in Baz Luhrmann’s film “Elvis,” set for a late June release. In it, she portrays Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the gospel guitarist and singer who was crucial in influencing the development of what became rock and roll and whose contributions to music should be far better known and celebrated by the general public.

“It was one of the most joyful moments of my life, doing this movie, working with Baz,” she enthuses. “It becomes this really pivotal opportunity to speak on her, and her importance, and not to beat around the bush of her inventing rock and roll and then us utterly taking that for granted.”

Yola plays music pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Elvis Presley biopic, set for a late June release.
Courtesy of Joseph Ross Smith

Credit: Joseph Ross Smith

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Credit: Joseph Ross Smith

The singer highlights Tharpe’s legacy: “The butterfly effect of her invention is responsible for a very large part of popular music! She discovered Little Richard. Without Little Richard, you get a very different Prince — a VERY different Prince.” Ultimately, she’s using promotion for the movie to “put her [Tharpe’s] name rightfully back at the top of human awareness when it comes to contemporary music.”

Yola’s own music thoroughly and defiantly resists categorization, hence her emphasis on genre fluidity. There are elements of soul, country, 60′s pop and rock in it, and fittingly, “Stand For Myself” is nominated for best Americana album at the 2022 Grammys. “A lot of my influences are somewhat classic, and so that feels like a really good home for me,” she agrees, highlighting the “broad church” of musical styles under the unofficial Americana umbrella. Yola’s shared the stage with Mavis Staples, collaborated with Massive Attack and opened for Chris Stapleton — a broad church indeed.

The album’s theme is her path to self-realization, from the low points in opener “Barely Alive” to the highs of the closer which shares the title of the record. A few of the songs pre-date “Walk Through Fire,” her acclaimed first solo album. The instrumentation, from the slide guitar on country-ish “Diamond Studded Shoes” to tasteful brass parts on ballad “Now You’re Here” to the strings on soulful, catchy single “Dancing Away In Tears,” packs a tight punch.

What it doesn’t do — ever — is get in the way of the two elements most driving the album’s consistency and greatness: Yola’s vocals and words.

On a release chock full of them, one particular highlight is “Break the Bough,” a 60′s-influenced song driven by a punchy rhythm guitar part plus bassist Nick Movshon channeling Motown legend James Jamerson on the choruses. Yola’s voice soars against that backdrop, with lyrics about her mother’s 2013 death that highlight the various facets of her personality.

The album’s emotional centerpiece is the stunning penultimate track “Like a Photograph.” Gently sung verses, embellished by a simple piano riff and a crying pedal steel guitar, flow into choruses on which Yola beautifully approaches the higher part of her range as she yearningly sings, “Hold me close just like a photograph/Hopefully it’s gonna last/Because soon enough it’s gonna be in the past/It’s coming fast.” The second half of the song builds dynamically around the repeated verse “Whoever said life was like a river/That was gonna roll on forever,” with various instruments providing tension and swells before fading out slowly in a swirl of strings and steel guitar. It’s a “Yola In Nashville” moment, matching the mix of powerful vocal talent, songcraft, understated but effective instrumentation and almost painful longing that define Dusty Springfield’s seminal 1968 album “Dusty In Memphis.”

While produced by Dan Auerbach at his Nashville studio Easy Eye Sound and complemented by a handful of co-writers and lengthy list of singers and players, make no mistake: this is, fully, Yola’s album. “There’s not an area of this record that I didn’t have my hands very deep in,” she confirms, “apart from the overdubs section” that she missed while filming her movie role. That included mixing and mastering, which made for a different experience than she had with her debut. “If anything,” Yola notes, “‘Walk Through Fire’ felt like a collaborative record more than a solo record.”

Yola's latest Grammy nomination is in the Americana category, a fitting place for her intoxicating blend of soul, country, rock and '60s pop.
Courtesy of Joseph Ross Smith

Credit: Joseph Ross Smith

icon to expand image

Credit: Joseph Ross Smith

Considering “Stand For Myself” was released last July, the performer is understandably anxious to treat fans to the new material. Asked about early favorites, she offers, “From the two nights and in the rehearsals things jump out different on different days.” Bringing Yola particular joy is a re-working of the album’s second side opener: “We’ve reimagined ‘If I Had To Do It All Again’ and it is one of the most fun things we’ve done.”

“I see these songs as kids, and I’m just trying to put them in the right school,” she says about playing live. “I want them to grow up and I want them to figure out who they want to be when they grow up.”

She concludes by setting the stage for what’s certain to be a life-affirming Saturday night at The Eastern: “I love the process of connecting with people.”


CONCERT PREVIEW

Yola with Jac Ross

8 p.m. March 19. $22.50-$79. The Eastern at the Dairies Complex, 777 Memorial Drive SE, Atlanta. easternatl.com.

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Rebecca Ramage-Tuttle, assistant director of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia, says the the DOE rule change is “a slippery slope” for civil rights. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

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