Christian Lee Hutson played Brighton Music Hall – 1/30

L.A. singer/songwriter Christian Lee Hutson brought his winter tour to town last week with support from fellow songsmith Allegra Krieger.

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If you spend a lot of your free time going to shows, and frequently arrive in time for the openers, you eventually have seen a lot of solo guys with an acoustic guitar. With due respect to the noble troubadour, said guys don’t always make a lasting impact without a pre-existing knowledge of the tunes. Not so for Christian Lee Hutson.

Hutson first appeared on my radar as an opening act for (and band member of) Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst’s Better Oblivion Community Center project back in 2019. Given Bridgers’ current status as a festival and arena headliner on her own and with her other supergroup, that tour of clubs and small theaters carries something of a did-that-really-happen air about it six years later, but I digress. Hutson played the role of the aforementioned folksinger at the Columbus that night, and his ear for both melody and narrative stuck with me immediately. A song as good as “Northsiders” can make you a first-impression fan.

I caught Hutson once again teamed up with Oberst, opening for Bright Eyes with a full band, a few years later, but last Thursday’s show at Brighton was back to a stripped-down acoustic format. With just the violin and voice of collaborator Odessa Jorgensen to accompany him, Hutson invited us to his onstage living room (there was an end table and a lamp, anyway) for a talkative, funny and freewheeling trip through his catalog. The set highlighted last year’s great Paradise Pop. 10, indulged in some audience Q&A and again proved Hutson a thoughtful, evocative storyteller with a key sense of humor that balances the emotional heft in his songs. Always nice to spend an evening with him.

Check out photos from the show below, including an opening set from former Allstonian Allegra Krieger, who also cast a memorable spell with simply song and voice.