Founded in Brooklyn in 2011, The Lone Bellow — Zach Williams, Kaneane Pipkin, and Briam Elmquist — are known for their gorgeous three-part harmonies. In their recent appearance at Union Stage, they also brought plenty of heartfelt feelings and tender moments.
In a touching display, Kaneane dedicated “Call to War” to her parents, who were in attendance, leaving the stage to embrace them. At Union Stage on Nov. 14, she shared that her father beat cancer last year, and her mother recently got a pacemaker. It touched a nerve for me: Around Christmas last year, my father was hospitalized with a systemic infection that require a heart procedure. It’s tough when you see your parents’ age — my dad is 77 — in their physical health, and I wasn’t ready to process all the complicated feelings I have about that relationship.
“Call to War” came during a section of the show in which the trio gathered around a single mic and their band took a break. This part of the evening showed their eclecticism, as they did a cover of the Boyz II Men R&B classic “End of the Road,” (a song instantly recognizable to anyone who was aware of pop culture in the early ’90s) along with “Homesick” and “Watch Over Us.”
Watch The Lone Bellow perform “Watch Over Us” live at WFUV on YouTube:
While TLB opened with “Honey,” a cut from their latest album, Love Songs for Losers, it was Then Came the Morning that got the most love. In addition to “Call to War, “Watch Over Us,” and the title track (which was their encore), they sang “Diners,” “Fake Roses,” “Heaven Don’t Call Me Home,” and “Marieta.” They tipped their hat to the local audience by dedicating “Cost of Living” to the cost of taxation without representation. The first portion of the show also included “Count on Me,” “Tree to Grow,” “No Getting Over You,” “You Were Leaving,” and “Night Goes Black.” The home stretch, after the band returned was rounded out with “You Never Need Nobody,” “Common Folk,” and “Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold,” which may be their most popular song.
Nicole Atkins’s opening set, acoustic and mostly solo, was the cherry on top of a great evening. After she kicked off the night with “The Way It Is” (not the Bruce Hornsby song, she shared that she and TLB “lived in New York at the same time, but we never met, because they’re good guys and I’m a bad guy.” Later, she added, “I’ve never seen of their [TLB’s] whole shows. I’m a bad friend.”)
“Brokedown Luck,” she said, “sounds like Fraggle Rock, but it isn’t.” As a Muppet afficionado, this tickled me, as did her story about dressing like pro wrestler The Ultimate Warrior. She introduced “A Little Crazy” as “a song I wrote with my high school boyfriend, Chris Isaak,” a statement that raises some thorny questions. Her friend Karla Rose joined her on vocals for “My Baby Don’t Lie,” a song about “punching a girl in the face.” “All these stories are true,” she said of “Never Going Home Again,” which her mom hates. (I can relate: my mom didn’t finish my first published short story!)
Watch Nicole Atkins perform “Never Going Home Again” live for Paste on YouTube:
After “Goodnight Rhonda Lee,” she shared a new song, “For No One,” and told us that she’s recording a new album this winter. She finished her set with a cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying.”
Nicole was a hoot, and she has an incredible voice. Her singing, and the singing by TLB, made this a night to remember.
Here are some photos of The Lone Bellow performing live at Union Stage on Nov. 14, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.
Here are some photos of Nicole Atkins opening The Lone Bellow at Union Stage on Nov. 14, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.
