‘Wonderment’: Chastity Brown sings to the walls

Chastity Brown is a Black, queer artist whose music is a combination of folk-rock, blues and Americana — with a hearty serving of soul. With upcoming tour stops in Arizona, the singer and songwriter said she is excited to embrace the warmer weather. 

“It’s 60 degrees here in Minneapolis, where I live, so I’m just looking forward to some heat,” Brown said. “I’m really looking forward to playing the concerts.”   

On Thursday, Sept. 18 and Friday, Sept. 19, Brown will perform at The Rialto Theatre @ 191 Toole and the Musical Instrument Museum, respectively. Her setlist will be composed of songs from her album “Sing to the Walls,” including “Boston,” “Back Seat,” “Curiosity,” “Like the Sun,” “Loving the Questions,” “Golden,” “Hope” and “Gertrude.” Brown selected the titular track “Sing to the Walls” and “Wonderment” as two of her favorites that she will perform as well.

The title piece, Brown said, is a romantic song, meant to capture the tenderness of listening to a partner’s difficult experiences and responding with love.

“You can respond by saying ‘well, dang, that sounds really challenging and really hard,’ but as a singer, I can take it a little bit further and hope that a song can sing to those parts,” she said. “The song is also very sexy, in a way, and at the same time, reverent.” 

The artist added that she plays the song slower live because the gentler tempo helps to better communicate the vulnerability the music holds. 

“Wonderment” — on the other hand — is faster and the piece that Brown said she likes to open with. 

“Part of the song I recorded in Stockholm, Sweden and it was produced by the drummer, Brady Blade,” she said. “I freaking love the way he plays the drums on that, I love the band that he put together. The guitarist built the guitar from scratch that he played on the track.” 

Brown explained that “Wonderment” sets the tone for both the show and the album, referring to the song as “a premonition of what’s to come.” 

The musician was last in the Grand Canyon state before the COVID-19 pandemic, touring with late poet, Andrea Gibson. Brown said that she’ll keep Gibson in her thoughts as she returns to perform again. 

“It’ll be a nice remembrance to retrace those steps that we were on — on that journey,” she said. “For that to be a part of the experience of coming again to play for folks, I think is really profound.”  

In addition to Gibson, Brown said some of her other musical inspirations include Bessie “Empress of the Blues” Smith and Gertrude “Ma” Rainey — “The Mother of Blues.” She said that she finds a lot of commonality in the two famous blues artists’ experience because they were also Black, queer women.  

Brown said she doesn’t feel tied to only one genre of music and has various inspirations across multiple genres. Despite being influenced by and enjoying blues, she said she is hesitant to call herself a blues musician because she doesn’t adhere strictly to the 12-bar style the genre is known for. Her status as a blues-lover is more about the origins, history and ancestry. Brown said that what makes old blues special is the lack of technology in its heyday to edit, correct and refine away all of the imperfections that the artist said made it perfect.     

Since childhood, she has also enjoyed indie rock and grew up loving the musical stylings of Dolly Parton and Nina Simone — listening to Casey Kasem’s “Top 40.” 

For Brown, the album “Sing to the Walls,” is about asking questions in the face of life’s hardships that don’t have a clear or definite answer.

“I used to be really obsessed with ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ at 19, and I’m 43 now,” she said. “Rilke, at some point, writes ‘love the questions in hopes that one day, you’ll be able to live yourself into the answer.’ What the (expletive), like…? Love the questions?

“I love that line, and it infuriates me.”

Brown said she hopes her audience leaves her show feeling understood and fulfilled.  

“I hope that they can hear a story that makes them feel seen,” she said. “Whatever the reason is that they go to music, I hope that they get that.”  

Chastity Brown at 191 Toole
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18  

WHERE: 191 E. Toole Avenue, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $29
INFO: rialtotheatre.com