WHAT WENT DOWN
Big Thief took the Ryman stage and played all 29 songs of *Horsepower*, an unreleased triple album nobody outside the sessions knew existed *†‡. Iris DeMent, Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams came out to help *†‡.
THE DETAILS
- Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, in front of roughly 2,400 people — Consequence dated it Aug. 22, Rolling Stone Aug. 23 †‡*.
- The tells: no opening act, signage discouraging phones, extra chairs onstage, fiddles on stands *.
- Band seated around a wooden table; two sets, an intermission and a three-song encore, running about three hours *‡.
- DeMent sang on 12 songs, Welch nine with banjo and tambourine, Williams one encore number, "Born For Loving You" †‡.
- Lenker: "If you had hopes of hearing songs you know, those can be discarded." ‡ She restarted after forgetting chords and said she was nervous *‡.
- Cameras filmed it for a concert film; the same set was planned for the following night *‡.
THE TAKE
A band sitting on "Not" and "Simulation Swarm" instead handed a sold-out room three hours of songs it had never heard *. *Horsepower* still has no announced release date, tracklist, or film date *†‡.