“Forty-one years ago yesterday,” Tori Amos recently told the audience at Wolf Trap, she got fired from her first job in the music business. Amos grew up in the DMV and, by her teens, was playing piano and singing in local clubs. She continued the story, mentioning a friendly African American man who told her, “They’ll regret this.” And, as she said, it worked out for the best.

A musical prodigy, Tori, at the age of five, became the youngest person to win a scholarship to the prestigious Peabody School of Music. A few years later, she was expelled for what she described as “musical insubordination.” That set the tone for her career, in which she has always followed her own North Star, making exactly the music she wants to make. After a stint with the band Y Kant Tori Read, she released her debut album, Little Earthquakes, to popular and critical acclaim in 1992.  She had one of the strongest runs of albums in the ’90s, following Little Earthquakes with Under the Pink (1994), Boys for Pele (1996), From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998), and To Venus and Back (1992). 

My relationship with Tori and her music owes at least something to her close friendship with the author Neil Gaiman. The two have known each other for 30 years, and they’ve influenced each other’s work. Gaiman modeled the character Delirium in his Sandman comics after her.

Though this was her “hometown show,” Tori’s appearance at Wolf Trap on July 5 was her first show there in 25 years, and she didn’t disappoint. Her live performance differs from her recorded work in letting the songs spread out; the main set, which lasted about an hour and 20 twenty minutes, consisted of just a dozen songs. She started with “God,” one of her many songs that delves into theological questions and issues. It’s a frequent subject in her songwriting, and she returned to it a few tunes later with “Crucify.”

Watch the official music video for “Crucify” by Tori Amos on YouTube:

Tori’s latest album, Ocean to Ocean, came out in 2021, so it’s not really “new” in terms of the album and touring cycle. She didn’t focus on it, including just the title cut and “Addition of Light Divided” in her set. The album was made during the pandemic lockdown, and was something of a family affair: her husband, Mark Hawley, played guitar and produced, and her daughter, Tash, provided vocals.

Much of the set consisted of audience favorites, which the crowd ate up: “Hey Jupiter,” “Wednesday,” “Lady in Blue,” and “Black Dove – January.” She played “Gold Dust” solo, and her band returned for “Purple People.” She closed the main set with what might be her most popular song, “Cornflake Girl.” The encore consisted of “Bliss,” with an interlude of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and “The Waitress.”

Towr’s, a folk group built around the married couple Gretta and Kyle Miller, opened the show, beginning with “Water Under the Bridge.” They covered Bob Dylan’s “Boot of Spanish Leather,” which they said is about how “sometimes letting something go is easier said than done.” After “Foregone,” they mention their two kids, an eight-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy. Their boy has recently got into martial arts, including stickfighting, which he calls his “pole dance,” rather humorously. He wanted to come on stage and do that while his parents sang, but they said no to that. “Baker’s Doy,” off their latest album, is a song “We wrote during the pandemic, when we had a lot of time to them.” Their last song, “I Must Believe In the Morning,” was about hope, and it was written after they learned that Gretta’s sister had brain cancer. This hit me personally, as I’m coming up on the 10th anniversary of my uncle’s passing from that disease.

I’ve been coming back to Tori’s music now for 30 years, so Wednesday’s night show was a chance to finally see an artist who’s been with me since my earliest teens. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate new depths of meaning in Tori’s work; the songs got inside my head, and they’ve made me think and reconsider things. She’s an incredible piano and keyboard player, and her songwriting has always been sharp and incisive. I look forward to see what she continues to do with her career, and I can’t wait to see her live again when she returns to our area.

Here are some photos of Tori Amos performing at The Filene Center at Wolf Trap on July 5, 2023. All pictures copyright and courtesy of David LaMason.