‘Lucy Dacus is for lovers’; Fans share memories of Richmond-raised indie darling

Maeve Bauer, Spectrum Editor 

New Jersey has Bruce Springsteen, Tennessee has Dolly Parton and Virginia has Lucy Dacus.

Dacus — also one third of supergroup Boygenius — is a famed singer-songwriter born and raised in Richmond, or more accurately, Mechanicsville.

Dacus returned to Richmond on Sept. 19 to perform for the first time in three years as a special kick-off for the Iron Blossom Music Festival at the Altria Theater. 

Before her ‘Big Break’ 

Dacus has always been active in the Richmond music scene. In an old article by The Commonwealth Times from 2014, Dacus was quoted as a mere “music festival attendee” — not a nationally-recognized name. She was cited again in a 2016 article as an example of someone who performed at house shows before finding larger success. 

Dacus went to high school at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School, and studied film at VCU for a year before dropping out. 

Dacus once shared in a Vulture interview that she became unamused with the college system in the United States, as well as the debt she would have to pay back while traveling Europe and working on her debut album “No Burden.”

Contemplating, she did not know at the time if she would commit to music full-time, but did know she needed a change.

Todd Raviotta was Dacus’ digital video and film studies teacher back in high school. He attended the recent Richmond show — which he said he thoroughly enjoyed. 

“It was very moving and inspiring and humbling and powerful,” Raviotta said. “I mean, it really was a hometown showing with friends from her lifetime, and being someone that’s part of that, to see and hear it was really special.” 

Raviotta said there were too many special moments to count, and many of them reminded him of the girl he taught in high school. 

“I mean, in some ways, she’s still the same person that was present in the classes and the conversations, she’s just radically amplified now, to a stage and in a light that is wonderful to see,” Raviotta said. 

Though Raviotta said he could not have predicted Dacus’ success, he enjoyed working with her, and knew she would go on to do something great. 

“You know you’re working with someone really special … how they share their gifts, you don’t know, that’s for them to show,” Raviotta said. “To see her tonight, to have seen all the stages, she’s played world over. She was always going there. It’s just the audience and the production and the lights that’s been added.”

‘Bus back to Richmond:’ The Altria Show

Dacus kicked off the night with her song “Hot and Heavy,” which she wrote while living in Richmond. She sang how “being back here makes me hot in the face” — fitting lyrics for the nerves Dacus said she felt over performing that night. When the song was over, she greeted the audience with a timid “hi Richmond.” The crowd responded with resounding applause, welcoming the singer home. 

The show had a special, familiar touch, as Dacus recognized a number of people in the audience from her childhood and carried banter with the crowd throughout the night. 

When she sang “VBS,” a song from her album “Home Video,” Dacus asked who attending the concert used to go to church with her. A handful of people cheered in response.

In August, Dacus released her latest single “Bus Back to Richmond,” which she said is about “whoever thinks it’s about them.” She played the song in its titular city for the first time, even though the lyrics mainly tell of a night in New York. 

Hometown friends, family members and fans not only made up a part of the audience, but participated on-stage as well to share the once-in-a-lifetime moment with Dacus. 

In July, Dacus started a tradition of bringing couples, specifically same-sex couples, on stage to personally officiate their marriages. She continued the ceremonies in Richmond. 

She started the tradition amid constant attacks by the Trump administration aimed at the queer community, such as deleting information off the CDC website regarding LGBTQ+ health, as well as discontinuing the national crisis hotline for queer youth. 

The moment is held to the song “Best Guess” as the newlyweds dance. The track meditates on the feeling of loving someone and how lovers may not know how things will change, but they know how they feel in the moment. 

Friends Hancie Stokes and Isabel Mills traveled from Washington to see Dacus perform. The two both queer, and felt it is incredible that Dacus is using her platform to speak out. They have seen Dacus four times, and feel a connection to her music, they said 

“I feel like for the two of us specifically we are truly, exactly Lucy’s age so like a lot of the stuff that she thinks about is like exactly how we feel,” Stokes said. “Like when ‘Home Video’ came out, we had been best friends for about 12 years and both of us were reflecting on what it was like to come back to your hometown.”

Mills said they both love the Boygenius song “True Blue,” made by Dacus and her bandmates Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers. Mills and Stokes were a “mess” while it played. 

“That was really cool because that’s a song that we’ve played together and listen to together, but I don’t think we’ve seen that live together,” Mills said.

The song is about knowing a friend deeply, for better or for worse. The lyrics exhibit the deep bond the Boygenius bandmates share, as they sing about how “it feels good to be known so well,” unable to hide from each other the way they can hide from themselves.  

“Now you’re moving in/Breaking a sweat on your upper lip/And gettin’ p***** about humidity/And the leaky faucet/You already hurt my feelings three times/In the way only you could,” Dacus sings, with backing vocals from Baker and Bridgers.

The trio has been making music publicly since they released their self-titled EP in 2018. When Boygenius performs together, their connection can be felt, even through a phone screen.  

Dacus invited her mother, Sandy, onto stage during the recent show, an honor only Richmond received. Mills and Stokes said it was a very touching moment to them.

The mother-daughter pair sang a heart-warming rendition of Dacus’ song “My Mother and I” —  which describes the complicated emotions that come with mother-daughterhood. The crowd could feel everything they felt during the performance. It was a healing moment for all. 

Dacus invited three Richmond musicians to share the stage with her: Ali Thibodeau of Deau Eyes, Landon Elliott and Wes Parker. 

Thibodeau and Dacus sat on the edge of the stage while they sang “Going, Going, Gone” from “Forever is a Feeling,” the album Dacus’s tour is celebrating. 

For “Bullseye” — Dacus’s song featuring Hozier — she and Elliott shared a couch as he filled in for the Irish megastar. 

Lastly, she brought out Wes Parker as his character “Skunk,” a parody of the average house show-goer, to play a guitar riff during “Night Shift” and close out the night. 

Dacus’s last tour show in the U.S. will be Dec. 6 in Beverly Hills, California — and then she will perform in Australia and New Zealand before ending her tour in Canada. But, no matter where Dacus goes, she will always be Richmond’s own.