Chris Stapleton, Tyler Childers, Abby Hamilton? Wilmore native could be next big Ky star

Imagine creating a set of powerful, imaginative and evocative songs that would serve as a nationwide introduction after years of forging a solid home state fanbase. Imagine being so thrilled with the sonic and narrative completion of that work that you couldn’t wait to share it with the rest of the world.

Now imagine sitting on it for nearly three years.

Welcome to the world of Abby Hamilton, a Wilmore native whose blend of folk, pop, Americana, country and sometimes even ambient atmospherics with storylines of remarkable introspection has made her a favorite of Lexington club shows and festivals.

The step-up to the big-leagues, after a few independent EP records, was a full-length album produced by local studio pros Duane Lundy and Justin Craig. The resulting project, a 10-song collection intriguingly titled “#1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo),” was a work the artist was thrilled with. She was even more excited to let it set sail to audiences outside of Kentucky.

Then it sat. And sat.

“We had this record mastered two-and-a-half, almost three years ago, so I’ve sitting on it for awhile,” Hamilton said. “I think I’ve been waiting so long for it to come out that it just kind of felt like it had already been out. I was talking to my brother recently and said to him, like, ‘Man, this feels really normal.’” With that, Hamilton erupted in laughter.

“It’s kind of like a lot of big things I thought would maybe make me feel something different. Then you get there and you’re like, ‘Well, I’m just doing what I’ve been doing.’”

Hamilton album “Zookeeper” released after 3 years

Patience is already paying off, however. The Nashville publicity team on hand to spread the word on “Zookeeper” (Sacks and Co.) is the same organization that continues to handle the careers of two other Kentucky artists that experienced a bit of an upward career trajectory in recent years — Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers. The latter also enlisted Hamilton as a show opener last month, along with fellow Kentucky songstress S.G. Goodman, for a sold-out show at one of the country’s most esteemed outdoor concert venues, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

So how does an artist promote an album, especially one designed to play such a pivotal role in the ascension of her career, that is new to everyone except herself?

“I haven’t been able to move past it,” Hamilton said. “These songs are still new to the world. I mean, we haven’t played 70% of that record. I wanted to preserve some kind of step forward with my audience. In the same way they might want to meet me, I want to meet them that way, too. So we’ve only played two or three of those songs live before the record actually came out.

“In the month leading up to the release, we went back into practices. We did a secret record release show here in Lexington at the Green Lantern in August. We hunkered down for a week and just learned those songs as a full band and have gotten a great reconnection with them.”

Touring with new songs

There is, perhaps, another reason to feel excited about bringing audiences across the country to “Zookeeper.” It’s a strong, mature and engaging work, from the rich affirmation of “Good Thing” that blends pop atmospherics with Americana intimacy to the gentle despondency wrapped in warm layers of purring ambiance on the record’s title tune to the patiently paced modern twang mapped out over a path of uncertainty during the album-closing “Displacer.”

“I am so proud of the sonic landscape we reached for. Not only has it translated to me, to where I feel like I knew myself well enough, but there is the relationship with how people are receiving it. I didn’t really have an expectation that anyone would hate it, but I just didn’t know if it would become as close to people’s hearts as it has been to mine,” Hamilton said. “To watch that happen, even in the last month or so, has probably been the most overwhelming part of all this because you just never know. It’s a whole other thing to have your art criticized just as much as it is celebrated, so to have more than my circle of friends care enough to give it time is just ... I don’t know. It’s given me a ton of affirmation and a push forward in a great direction with great focus.”

This week, Hamilton began a month-long tour to promote “Zookeeper” that will take her from Missouri to Oregon before making its way to venues in Toronto, Washington, New York and Philadelphia. Several of the shows have her sharing stages with the veteran Providence alt-pop troupe Deer Tick.

Playing The Burl and Red Rocks

“Man, nothing about my music career has ever been linear, so I’ve allowed myself to be surprised and pushed just to make good art. My main goal is to just tour and create incredible shows, get better and make great records. I mean, I am so surprised that the year has even looked like this before the album even came out. Sure, we all have those bucket list goals. I would die to play the Ryman (Auditorium in Nashville). Another one was Red Rocks, but I got to play that with Tyler.”

Ah, yes. The Red Rocks show in September with Childers and Goodman.

“That was insane. It was so overwhelming but so lovely and so chill in the same way. I can’t tell you just how geeked we were. We just felt like, ‘Man we are guests of this energy. We have been invited to watch someone else do what they’re doing.’ And to be there with S.G., too, who is one of my favorite artists of our time.

“I remember walking onstage and then I don’t remember the show. We got to the end of it and looked up and my whole band was just looking at each other, tears were shed and it was just one of those moments. It was like how I would imagine a wedding day would be, where you’re like, ‘I can’t believe that happened. I don’t know how that happened.’”

There are no immediate plans for another Lexington show for Hamilton, as she played The Burl as recently as September on the opening night of its County Fair festival. She will be undoubtedly be back at the club soon, though. Aside from serving as her first major performance outlet, it’s also a place of employment.

“That was one of the first venues I’ve ever played when I started,” she said. “I built so much community around that place. When I started playing, I needed a job that would just allow me to leave. The Burl has just always been the constant supporter of me and what I’m doing. So, I’ve been bartending there for the last three years. I actually worked every job there before I bartended. I was a door girl, I cleaned bathrooms, I did admin work in the years before COVID, so I definitely cut my teeth at that venue. Yes, I am one of their own.”