Opener: Jabe Beyer
Venue: Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
Date: Thursday, May 11, 2006
Highlights:
"We'll Go No More a'Roving"
"Light of the Light"
"Weather Vane"
"Little Wings"
BACKGROUND:
I first heard of Kris Delmhorst at Falcon Ridge several years ago when her first album on Signature Sounds, Five Stories, was brand new, and she was touring a bit with Dar Williams. My first impression was that she sounded a lot like Williams, with her sweet yet earnest, airy soprano, and her chunky acoustic guitar strumming that was interspersed with melodic finger picking.
Don’t get me wrong – I loved the spirit of songs like “Little Wings” and “Yellow Brick Road,” but I felt like she had a little ways to go before I could be completely converted to a full-fledged Kris Delmhorst fan.
Then came Strange Conversations (Signature Sounds – due out 6/27) – Delmhorst’s newest album, which is full of songs for bibliophiles like myself: including not one, but two songs about the death of Virgil, and a somewhat honky-tonk adaptation of my favorite ee cummings poem, “Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town” (shortened for the sake of the song to “Pretty How Town”).
Then came the opportunity to finally see Delmhorst live, after five years of struggling with whether or not I think she’s absolutely fabulous.
CONCERT REVIEW:
It was the end of a particularly lovely spring day which, after the winter we had here in Seattle, translates to a city full of people in great moods. The typically jampacked standing-room-only Tractor Tavern actually had rows of seats set up, but the crowd spilled over to some standers on the bar side of the room, anyhow.
Delmhorst’s opening act – fellow Bostonian Jabe Beyer – played an impressive solo set on his electric guitar, a rare instrument in the world of solo singer/songwriters. Nevertheless, his sad yet hopeful songs brought to mind great songwriters like Joe Henry and Willy Porter.
Finally, Delmhorst took the stage after a brief break between Beyer and herself. She opted to open the set with a “song [she and Beyer, who was backing her on electric guitar and vocals] actually kind of know”: “Waiting Under the Waves.”
With that brief and easy, lovely introduction, she broke into a “chunk” of songs from Strange Conversations, which she described as a collection of “songs based on actual poets. Dead ones … the very best kind.”
“We could know these songs better than we do,” she admitted. “By the time we get to L.A. we’ll know them really well.”
Delmhorst’s stage presence is electric. If she’s not singing in her most exquisitely captivating mezzo, she’s summing her songs up with humor and honesty (about Lord Byron, she says, “This is from a poem about that feeling you get when you’ve slept with one too many little Greek boys”).
Although she seemed somewhat more unsure of the “poet songs,” as she kept referring to them, the synergy between Delmhorst and Beyer was unignorable. Beyer’s ability to jump in and play the perfect electric guitar filler, or add the ideal harmony below Delmhorst’s haunting melody, was unstoppably impressive, especially considering the duo had admittedly not had much practice together with the new songs.
Delmhorst’s more classic tunes like “Broken White Line” and “Little Wings” were well received, and in fact she was able to keep the room absolutely silent for the entire hour or more of her set – with the exception of sincere applause.
Over the course of the evening, any suspicions that Kris Delmhorst was not the real deal were summarily surpassed by the strong evidence to the contrary. Her easy demeanor and New Englander charm, paired with enticingly haunting melodies and the intricate lyrical artistry cannot be denied.
