Live music review: Shakey Graves headlined Utah Arts Fest Saturday with a huge crowd
On the 50th Anniversary of Utah Arts Festival, Salt Lake City’s premier annual arts event chose to host Austin folk-Americana artist, Shakey Graves on Saturday, June 21 on the street adjacent to Library Square in the downtown civic center area. As huge fans of Graves’ since his return to Austin from Los Angeles where he was pursuing an acting career we’ve seen his steady ascent in music.
Clearly the man chose well. Moreover, he became the type of homegrown Austin singer Austinites can be proud of. Graves embodies the best aspects of Austin culture. We’re all lucky he and his wife Stephanie (also a local) have decided to stay in the community rather than decamp to Los Angeles or other locales that might be easier for them logistically. SLC was lucky Gravess’ camp accepted their invitation and performed a career-spanning set that had hardcore fans howling and cheering the entire performance.
Graves led off with a few new tracks from his latest LP, Fondness, Etc, including, “When the Love is New,” “Nobody’s Fool” and a personal favorite, “Time Flies,” the song that includes members of Dawes on the recording. Graves is rightly proud of this new album and views it as his best work. It hard to argue with that logic and he’s not wrong. It’s a fantastic listen. We encourage folks to buy the record and add it to your collection. We suspect it’ll become a favorite in short order if it isn’t already.
What made the performance so much more enjoyable was Graves inclusion of early songs from his first record, Roll the Bones which is how we first saw the man. Graves was playing songs from his debut record at Do512 Lounge the event calendar many music fans keep track of so they don’t miss their favorite artists’ performances. The skinny, good-looking artist had a weird set-up, performing solo but with a kick drum embedded into an old Samonite suitcase in addition to his acoustic and electric guitars. The memory is fuzzy, but we’re certain Graves performed the title track there just like he did during the acoustic section of the show on Saturday. We were instantly transported back to that first, early, intimate performance that made us fans for life.
We spoke to a UAF staffer that let us know that the crowd in front of Graves was the largest of the four day headlining performance schedule that included a well-attended Digable Planets performance on Thursday to kick off the event. A sizable VIP area was positioned stage right and included access to a dedicated bar and front viewing area. The space was nearly full as was the GA area behind them. If you’re judging UAF on it headliner show attendance, they knocked it out of park.
We can wait to see what comes next year. 2026 on the fest’s 50th Anniversary will be hard to top.
If you missed Shakey Graves on the first leg of his Fondness, Etc tour, don’t fret, the man has lots of dates left on his calendar. Head to his website to view upcoming tour dates and grab your tickets before they sell out. The tour picks up again in Dallas on June 26.
All photos by Ryan Wesley Odom
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