Mikaela Davis

A concert by American singer, songwriter and harpist Mikaela Davis at The Louisiana in Bristol, built around the album Graceland Way and its harp-led, country-tinged songwriting.

Mikaela Davis is an American singer, songwriter and harpist whose music blends alt-country, roots rock, psychedelia and jam-band sounds, with the harp and other stringed instruments woven through the arrangements. The music sits in pop, rock and indie territory. The album Graceland Way, released on Kill Rock Stars, was co-written by Davis and guitarist John Lee Shannon, and co-produced with the longtime collaborator Dan Horne at UHF Studio.

The record was shaped at a hillside home in Chevy Chase Canyon, in Los Angeles County, and follows an unnamed antihero through a failing world. Its frame links a neo-western future to Laurel Canyon, Elvis's Graceland and Paul Simon's reinventions. The opening track, "(Looking Through) Rose Colored Glasses", begins with a harp glissando and features pedal steel by Kurt G. Johnson and vocal parts by Madison Cunningham and Tim Heidecker. "Nothin's On The Radio" follows, portraying a city in which radio has become a homogenised, corporate-run medium.

The Louisiana, a Bristol venue that hosts concerts and shows, is the setting for this performance. The evening suits listeners drawn to harp-led songwriting that moves between country, rock and psychedelic textures.