Lizz Wright: Finding Grace In The South Vocalist Lizz Wright takes us on a road trip tracing her Southern roots in her home state of Georgia — and we hear a performance from a concert recorded in Atlanta at the Variety Playhouse.

Lizz Wright: Finding Grace In The South

Lizz Wright: Finding Grace In The South

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Jesse Kitt
Lizz Wright
Jesse Kitt

Lizz Wright is well acquainted with the storytelling power of a journey. Her music, rooted in the gospel truths and rustic byways of this country, could be seen as a sustained meditation on movement: not just the flow of bodies in rapturous rhythm, but also the trajectories that mark a life story.

For this episode of Jazz Night in America, she takes us on the road via an audio diary in an exploration of her own roots, from Appalachia, to Atlanta to Southern Georgia. She also digs into some of the songs from her recent album, Grace, in concert at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta.

"I just kind of circled my whole lineage and just tracked what people were saying and doing," Wright says. "I felt like I needed to get the pulse of the South and my people in it."