Lily Fitts isn’t just “Getting By.” She’s taking over

Lily Fitts didn’t set out to be a musician. Not really. She was studying microbiology and biochemistry at UMass Amherst. An aspiring doctor with a dog named Duncan and a guitar that mostly stayed off the stage. Music was her escape. A coping mechanism. A hobby.

Now? She’s coming off a headline show at Hyde Park, has just released her debut album Getting By – of which Duncan himself graced the cover – and she’s gearing up for her first sold-out U.S. tour. 

“I never thought this could actually be a full-time career,” she tells me, seated on a bench at the Levitate Music Festival grounds after a short acoustic set. “I wanted to become a doctor because I wanted to help people, and that’s always been my life goal: to impact someone in some way. And now I get to do that through music.”

“I wanted to become a doctor because I wanted to help people, and that’s always been my life goal: to impact someone in some way. And now I get to do that through music.” – Lily Fitts

Her voice is calm, reflective. She’s still adjusting to all this – the shows, the press, the fact that Getting By, her debut album, is already connecting with fans across the country. “As someone who struggles with mental health, I think Getting By is my way of healing and taking back my power. Just don’t be afraid, because feeling it is the only way to heal.”

Despite the personal subject matter, the record never wallows. If anything, it leans triumphant – with sharp bite and witticism featured on every track. Tracks like “Good Riddance,” which she wrote the day after a breakup, are razor-sharp and unexpectedly funny. “I wrote that song the day after a breakup, and I just wanted to laugh. I just wanted to have a good time. We wrote that song in like 20 minutes, just dying laughing the whole time. It felt so hyper specific… but it’s me, and it’s my truth.”

“It felt so hyper specific… but it’s, it’s me, and it’s my truth.”

That honesty runs through every song on Getting By, and it’s no accident. “I think the way I write,” Lily remarks, “I’m brutally honest as a human and as a writer. You don’t want to throw someone under the bus. That’s never my intention. But I think it’s kind of my way of healing and taking back my power.”

Fitts cites Stevie Nicks and Dolly Parton as songwriting idols, and while you can hear the influence, she’s not a retro revivalist. Her lyrics are sharper, more pointed. Her vocals, which crack and bite in all the right places, bring a modern edge to a timeless sound. “You hear Dolly in the lyricism,” she says, “but it’s me. It’s my sound and my truth.”

At Levitate, that sound held up live – and then some. She played solo on the Songwriter Stage, a wooden platform in the middle of a sunny field. No band. No backing track. Just her and her guitar. She drew an impressive crowd for a toasty Sunday afternoon , especially on one of the festival’s smaller stages. While her music speaks most directly to twenty-somethings in emotional freefall, the cluster of kids and tweens gathered near the front seemed just as transfixed.

The set highlight was “Brown Eyed Baby.” It’s a slow-burn standout – and my personal favorite off her debut album – that lets her vocals stretch and simmer. If she ever records a live version of Getting By, it might just outshine the studio cuts.

Fitts’ ascent has been fast, but certainly not unearned. Her breakout moment came when she rewrote the lyrics to a Noah Kahan song and posted it online. The clip went viral, launching her into an entirely different orbit. Before long, she was being invited to perform with Zach Bryan, joining Willow Avalon on tour, and getting the call, out of nowhere, to open for Kahan himself at London’s Hyde Park.

“I owe so much to him,” she says. “That ‘Stick Season’ rewrite was the thing that really started it all.”

Still, she’s not just riding a wave. Getting By proves she has the songwriting chops to back it all up. The album is diaristic, but intentionally crafted. And even as she opens up about mental health, heartbreak, and feeling untethered in your twenties, there’s an unmistakable clarity in her writing. 

That transparency comes with its own challenges. “When I released my first song, I was terrified,” she admits. “I was like, are people going to make fun of me? Are they going to think I’m mean? But I can’t fake it. I’d rather be honest than fake it.”

Now, that truth is resonating in bigger and bigger rooms. This summer, she’ll embark on her first headline tour. 11 cities across the U.S., including a sold-out date at The Sinclair in Cambridge. For a local artist who once opened there as an unknown, it’s the kind of full-circle moment that feels all the more special. 

“You grow up going to shows there,” she says. “It’s surreal. Last summer I opened for Michael Marcagi there, and now I sold it out.”

For Lily Fitts, music may have started as a private refuge. Something she did in between classes and clinical labs. But now, it’s something much bigger: a career, a calling, and a way to reach the people who need her most. She called her debut album Getting By. But judging by the path she’s carving, that title’s already obsolete.

Catch Lily on her “Getting By Tour” (tickets available here) and make sure to check out her debut album, Getting By.

Original article here, featured on The Concert Chronicles.