Review: Gregory Alan Isakov + Lucius at Rabbit Rabbit

Gregory Alan Isakov and his band brought the sonic landscapes of the Rockies to the Blue Ridge for an Oct. 10 show at Rabbit Rabbit, his autumnal Americana serving as a suitable soundtrack for the perfect, early-fall night.

The Colorado-based singer/songwriter — a seated-theater act if there ever was one — initially struck me as a mismatch for downtown’s standing-room-only, parking lot amphitheater. But both the venue and band were up to task: Rabbit Rabbit’s intentional investments in sound and infrastructure proved it can present more nuanced performances, and Isakov’s five-piece band more than filled the outdoor space, wrapping his pastoral songs in moody, atmospheric soundscapes. 

But first, Lucius kicked off the evening with a headliner-worthy opening set of ethereal indie-pop. Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe walked onstage just as the sun was setting and serenaded the trickling-in crowd with a pre-bedtime lullaby: a stunning acapella cover of “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from Walt Disney’s Cinderella.

Which was fitting, because the next 35 or so minutes felt like a dream.

Sporting shimmery silver robes and matching bangs, Laessig and Wolfe stood facing each other center stage, flanking a table decorated with candles and synths. They sang into microphones wrapped with vines of silver and gold leaves, rarely breaking eye contact as their voices braided melodies and harmonies. Longtime bandmates and multi-instrumentalists Dan Molad and Pete Lalish played, seated, on opposite sides of the stage.

I was mainly familiar with Lucius as in-demand backing vocalists — a shape-shifting harmony duo whose malleable voices grace a diverse roster of recordings, from The War on Drugs, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Jeff Tweedy to Sheryl Crow, Harry Styles, and The Killers. But I was instantly transfixed by their songwriting and performance, both visually and sonically.

The band seemingly tailored its set for the Isakov-friendly audience, prioritizing the soft, romantic chapters of its catalog over disco-influenced material from 2022’s Second Nature. A cover of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” was a pleasant surprise, as were previews of a few unreleased songs. Favorites like “Feels Like a Curse” and “Dusty Trails” segued into the set-closing “Two of Us on the Run,” which ramped up hushed, finger-picked acoustic verses into a rousing, Mumford and Sons-meets-Arcade Fire crescendo.

After a short intermission, Isakov took the darkened stage wearing his trademark felt fedora and an army-green field coat. An instrumental intro flowed into the plucked banjo “Before the Sun,”introducing a set that showcased Isakov’s signatures: a balance of intimate, strings-laced folk like “San Luis” and “Big Black Car,” and darker, dramatically arrangements like “This Empty Northern Hemisphere” and “The Fall,” which swell from whisper to wail with his smoldering voice finding its falsetto. He'd occasionally pivot to a harmonica bullet mic for a heavily distorted effect, as if slipping into a different character, with lush harmonies, keys, cello, and reverb-y electric guitar creating walls of texture and tension.

Songs from the August release Appaloosa Bones — recorded in a barn studio on Isakov’s working farm outside Boulder — served as the evening’s centerpiece. Isakov makes music like he grows produce for a local CSA and food bank: slowly and organically, planting seeds and giving them space and resources to germinate. Appaloosa Bones is his first album in five years, culled from three dozen songs written during growing seasons and Evening Machines tours, patiently waiting for storylines and aesthetics to emerge before whittling the collection down to eleven tracks — seven of which graced the Asheville setlist.

Standouts included the heartbreaking “She Always Takes it Black,” performed mid-set and solo under a single white spotlight, segueing seamlessly into another highlight from The Weatherman, the redemptive “Second Chances.” And the waltzy “Amsterdam” had the near-capacity crowd singing along with its yearning chorus: “Churches and trains/They all look the same to me now/They shoot you some place/While we ache to come home somehow.”

Lucius returned for the main set’s final two numbers: a cover of Daniel Norgren’s “I Waited for You” — which Wolfe walked down the aisle to during her recent wedding — and the pulsating, meditative “Caves,” which closed with the invitation, “Let’s put all these words away.”

The band crowded around a single condenser microphone, bluegrass style, for an “unplugged” encore that ended with two of Isakov’s earliest and best-known songs: “All Shades of Blue,” elevated by Lucius’ harmonies, and “The Stable Song,” which was stripped to Isakov’s nylon-stringed guitar and Steve Varney’s banjo. The all-acoustic finale provided a natural bookend to the naked notes and color palette that kicked things off, the frontman’s parting lyrics adding an extra layer of poignancy: “Ring like silver, ring like gold/Turn these diamonds straight back into coal.”

(Photos by Bryce Lagoon)

Lucius