The night of Wednesday, Jan. 14, the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans, Louisiana, was abuzz with people expectant for a night of music with their favorite artist. Gregory Alan Isakov is a Colorado-based folk artist who has been making music for over two decades.
Before the show started, Mason Tusa and Lily Dufour talked about their excitement for the show and their hopes for seeing Isakov for the first time. When talking about the singer-songwriter’s music, Dufour said, “It’s just so calming and peaceful, and just yearnful. Just good vibes.”
Tusa was hoping to hear “San Luis” and “Big Black Car.” Dufour was hoping for “Amsterdam.”
New Orleans was Isakov’s first stop on his winter 2026 tour. He played to a sold-out audience in what is being called “An Intimate Acoustic Evening with Gregory Alan Isakov” by the concert’s venue. The stage was simple, with red lighting, a couple of rugs, a stool, a piano and a few guitars.
The show was a first for Sadie Knapp, who said that for her first concert, it was great. Knapp is in theater, so one of the things that stood out to her was the lighting and set design. The globes of light placed around the space brought color and tone to the intimate world of the stage.
“I pulled out my phone today at school to show my friends the lighting design,” Knapp said.
A few minutes after 8 p.m., Isakov walked on stage to rapturous applause. There was only a little lighting as he picked up his guitar and began to play “Ash of Our Elders.” Once the first song ended, he began to talk to the crowd.
“Hello New Orleans… I’ve been thinking about vampires all day long,” Isakov said. He continued talking about how this concert was his first solo, “kitchen table” kind of show. “I put it off for a long time – I just kind of thought it’d be kind of boring. And then I was like, ‘I love a boring show.’ Thank you for coming.”
Emma Poloza, a long-time fan of Isakov’s music, loved seeing him perform in person.
“He’s my favourite singer, so I’ve been raving about [the concert] all day,” she said. “I’m feeling wonderful!”
Isakov has been a familiar voice for Poloza ever since her “acoustic phase.”
“Everyone goes through a phase,” she said. “After my acoustic, soft music phase, he was the only one that kinda stuck around because I feel like his music is just very universal. It’s very calming. So I still listen to him all the time, and every occasion I feel like his voice is just very natural.”
Her favorite part of the night was when Isakov brought out his brother, Ilan, to perform with him. Another moment she mentioned is how when the show ended, Isakov left the stage and then returned to do an encore. After all the applause, Isakov played once more for everyone.
“It was like a 10-minute song. It was beautiful,” said Poloza.
She continued, “I think it’s very powerful because music is totally a God-given talent, so I feel like the ability that he brought all those people together to just sit and listen to him with no theatrics was a very telling way how music brings people together.”
Evan Tassin is a senior history major at LSU, and he said that the quiet ambience of this performance was a stark contrast to the loud crowds he had encountered at other concerts.
“It felt like it was just him playing with his friends,” Tassin said. “I felt like I was just sitting across the table from somebody, and they were just playing me a song.”
Tassin is a musician – he plays guitar and sings – so he talked about how he was also able to appreciate the performance from a technical standpoint.
“I was nerding out a little bit because just seeing [Isakov’s brother Ilan] who played the guitar, and who would do a certain kind of picking style – I would kind of freak out.”
Throughout the show, the audience was practically silent until the end of each song, which was met with applause and cheers from all over. The night, in as little words as possible, was peaceful. Isakov’s voice and music were sonorous, washing over the audience like a wave washing over sand.
“A lot of things were running through my head while I was watching [the show], because he plays a song and you’re kind of just in it for that moment, which can’t be said for a lot of artists,” said Tassin.
Tassin admires Isakov’s music because he feels that the musician’s sound has a quality that stands out in such an oversaturated genre like folk music. The singer’s songwriting, when paired with his acoustic guitar and folksy banjo, is also able to paint fairy tale-like pictures in the listeners mind, said Tassin.
“He’s not the first white guy that ever pulled on a flat brimmed cap and played with an acoustic guitar,” Tassin said, “but the way he does it, you can feel it’s authentic.”
As the night came to a close, Isakov received tons of applause and returned for an encore, playing “Before the Sun” and covering his friend and collaborator Iron & Wine’s song, “The Trapeze Swinger.” Isakov received an immediate standing ovation from the theater full of fans, and he took his bows and left the stage.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com ’
