Kyshona previewing ‘Legacy’ in Cedar Rapids concert

Some of the finest songs masterfully manipulate music fans. The Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” tugs at the listener’s heart strings. Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely” is gorgeous and sad.

“I understand what a song can do to a person,” singer/songwriter Kyshona Armstrong said while calling from her Nashville home. “I want to be moved as a listener. Every time I hear Anais Mitchell’s ”Orion,“ I just fall apart and weep. That is such an amazing song.

“Music is so powerful. My goal when I write songs is to move listeners.”

Armstrong, 43, who will perform Sunday at CSPS Hall in Cedar Rapids, is making an emotional impact with her poignant songs, like the moving “Listen.” The soulful tune comprises hope, love and understanding.

“I’m just trying to make the world a little bit better,” Armstrong said. “I’m not playing arenas, so everyone isn’t hearing what I’m doing. But I hope one day people will hear what I write and record, even if it’s after I’m long gone. I know how music can change a person’s day and even their life.”

Armstrong, who blends folk, rock and R&B, understands how significant a song can be, since she’s been a music therapist since 2002. She has worked with a diverse group, including inmates, troubled teens, the elderly, and people with mental illness.

“What I do in terms of music depends on the people,” she said. “When I’m in a detention center, I usually work on spoken-word or hip-hop. It might be poetry that’s the focus in a prison. It might be Frank Sinatra or the Beatles in a retirement setting. What connects everyone, regardless of where they fit in (as a demographic) is that words and music touches people.”

Diverse groups gather to experience Armstrong’s clever and sensitive songs. She will preview cuts from her forthcoming album, “Legacy” at CSPS.

“I’m excited about ‘Legacy,’ since this is the first project that I’ve turned inward,” Armstrong said. “My prior albums were always about the external. But I’m looking at myself and my family.

“I’ve been talking with my mother, who has Alzheimer's. I’m trying to obtain information from her about where we come from. I’m trying to get as many details as I can. I know I come from enslaved people, so there’s grit from that experience. I realize the privilege I have being able to use a microphone to speak and sing words. My ancestors were unfortunately silenced.”

The tracks from “Legacy” are heavy and meaningful. The same can be said for Armstrong’s potent single “Listen,” released at the start of the pandemic.

“I don’t know if everyone knows how important it is to listen,” Armstrong said. “When I was in college, I took a course on listening. People don’t realize when you listen that you reflect the person in front of you. It’s not your job to fix the problem, just to reflect back. You want to make sure that they hear you. Listening is a large part of what I do as a therapist.”

Cedar Rapids’ legacy

Armstrong will use another sense when the veteran songsmith returns to Cedar Rapids.

“I love the smell of Cedar Rapids,” she said. “The city smells like chocolate and cereal and I love that. Is cereal made there?”

When Armstrong was informed that the Quaker Oats plant is responsible for that aroma, she laughed.

“That’s so cool,” she said. “That’s just something else for me to look forward to when I go back to Cedar Rapids.”

Armstrong has been a full-time singer/songwriter for the past dozen years, but she still works as a music therapist.

“I love being a therapist,” she said. “What I do helps people, whether it’s in a therapy session or from a stage. Music makes such a difference in everyone’s life.”