There are a variety of reasons a concert can be exciting. Most obviously, the artist or band and their music is the big draw. Beyond that, it could be a popular artist playing at a smaller venue, that a band hasn’t been through that city in a long time, or the reunion of a band. On this Thursday evening, there was a real excitement for the Americana tones of local Anna Graves, as she was stopping at the Turf Club in the midst of a full national tour.

I’m generally pretty good about schedules, particularly when it comes to my availability for concerts, but sometimes life intervenes. It meant that I could not get to Turf Club in time to see opener Anna Devine, who we last saw as one of the lead vocalists of Chutes at First Avenue in January 2026. We’ll find a show of hers in the future and look forward to sharing our thoughts here.

Anna Graves is a Minnesotan singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who has been playing in the Americana country genre. She got plenty of attention with her single Fly that was used in the series Nobody Wants This and her 2026 album, America’s Greatest Burnout, is a great continuation of the somewhat mournful sound she has been building. We last reviewed a full set of hers in Kansas City in June 2025, opening for The Head and the Heart. I walked in as Graves was just getting going and the duo (Graves on vocals, guitar, harmonica, and piano and her band mate Billy on steel guitar and guitar) were pretty fired up for homecoming show midway through her current tour. Hollow Bones had Graves at her most inviting; vibrant vocals, good guitar support, and a catchy if somewhat dour refrain. Following with Trail Horse, Graves continued the somewhat downer mood, with the chorus of “maybe I’m just not a trail horse” landing well. The steel guitar was understated but perfectly placed, and when Graves got a big belted vocal section, she crushed it and the crowd was hollering their support. She moved to piano for a pair of songs and the bright tones there had her playing nearly the bluesy bar singer, except with that country twang coming through. Bluebird was singled out as a song that was important to Graves and she was deftly weaving a spell that had the packed house nearly silent.

An amusing anecdote of sitting on a wasp’s nest got us a, “That was a week. It looked like I got a butt lift, but just in one cheek”, and it showed a fine sense of humor. That levity was a good counter to most of the sadder song material, but she was back to the music. Honkie Was a Wise Man was the most upbeat tune of the set and may be one of my favorites. Graves noted that she had chased her music dreams to both LA and Nashville and has now returned to Minnesota, “where it all just made sense”. She jujitsu-ed her way from that to a “spiteful song” and Two-Faced was a brilliant one with the lyric “you’re not even sorry, you’re just sorry I found out” nailing a serious truth. Again, steel guitar on this one was the exact right additive and Graves had the audience in the palm of her hand. A very brief technical issue on the guitar, “we can fix it in post” led to a guitar switch, but no one cared as Graves had built up more than enough goodwill. Ashes & Smoke was back to the winsome ways for Anna Graves as she really inhabited a great niche of Americana country that is accessible in a crossover way to a much broader audience. Fly had a significant number of singers from the crowd and Graves was riding high. Granted had her back on harmonica and the dual guitars were in a great lockstep with each other. It ended as it absolutely had to, and Minnesota let Graves go off vocally one more time and with the fabulous steel guitar and crowd in full throated sing along, it was the perfect end to a sold out show. But it wasn’t the end, as she never even left the stage but went into a single song encore and Damn In Love gave Anna Graves one last sing to wow the crowd and bask in the warmth of a sold out local show.