Lily Rose’s career blossoms — catch her in Boston
The young country artist Lily Rose did a double take the other night when she saw an ad for Shania Twain’s upcoming tour, with herself as the opening act. “That’s when I said, ‘So I guess this is actually happening. Nobody’s pinched me yet so I’m still living this fever dream.’
Before heading on that tour Lily Rose is doing a string of club dates, which opens at Brighton Music Hall on Thursday. It will be her first headline show in town (she played a short guest set with Chris Lane at the House of Blues last year), and likely one of her last in a small venue.
It’s been two years since the then-unknown, Atlantaborn singer posted her debut single “Villain” on TikTok. Like most of her songs it’s frank about relationships, and lands somewhere between country and streetwise modern pop. The song took off in a hurry, getting thousands of views on its first day. And she knew something was happening when it wound up knocking one of her own musical heroes (and now labelmate) Taylor Swift off the top of the TikTok chart.
“A couple of Swiftie armies started coming after me, but I’m glad to say they backed off pretty quick,” she said. “I was really reluctant to even download TikTok at first, I turn 30 this year so I thought I was a little too old for the app. But I thought I had songs that could compete. I think the story in ‘Villain’ is beyond relatable, not just on the romantic level — It could be about something you go through with your parents.”
Since her dad worked in radio, she grew up with a good sense of what makes a hit song. “When we released the first songs I had another hundred demos sitting in my Google drive, 20 of which were probably good. My dad was a big fan of commercial music and I’ve always loved it myself, and I think studying it over the years has helped me when it comes to the sensibility and the hook. I didn’t even start listening to country until I was in high school. Before that, the main thing for me was Springsteen. And if you listen to him now, the dude has some twang — I think they’d call him a country artist if he came out now.”
She cut her teeth performing in Athens, GA, famous for spawning R.E.M., the B-52’s and Jason Isbell. But she found that her adopted home of Nashville was more welcoming to her as an eclectic musician and a lesbian, despite its conservative image. “I would be lying if I said that wasn’t a worry of mine. I dealt with way more people hassling me in Athens because I walked down the street holding hands with a girl. Nashville is welcoming because it’s an industry town; even the most conservative people don’t give a damn.”
She’s already dealt with the whirlwind effect on a follow-up single, “Overnight Sensation,” and says that more songs are on the way. “I want to push some boundaries, but not just because I’m a country artist and an out lesbian. I also like to do interesting things like blending my voice with hip-hop beats and a steel guitar. I’d rather nosedive into that and fail, than to have a runaway hit doing what other people are doing.”