Tell Laura They Loved Her - an evening of exquisite sound at Bojangles cafe.
Charles Paxton March 31st, 2008
The evening of Friday, March 28 was a remarkable one on several counts, first that it marked PhasingHz’s Laura James’s gig at Appleby’s trendy music cafe, Bojangles, and secondly that though we were plagued by some odd technical gremlins (no one was phased and no one hurt) it was still the best live show we’ve yet seen. We have never witnessed a cafe audience listen in such rapt silence as they did to Laura - she entranced us all.
Chris performing Salty Water
The evening began with an excellent introductory set by Laura’s talented blues musician father, Chris James. Describing his music with his characteristic modesty as “Rough nasty blues with a touch of sophistication” we braced ourselves quite unnecessarily for a roughish intro that would make the second act shine more brightly. We were soon to discover that Chris wasn’t pulling his punches and that Laura could shine after any opening act.
Chris opening with genuine blues
Chris is very entertaining; his act is characterized by finely sensitive guitar finger-work with lots of capo and slide use, and … yes vocals that are rough and sophisticated interspersed with some rakish blarney between songs. My wife, Kimmie is from Louisiana and the music Chris played took her right back there. This is the real thing folks, Chris James played a superb cover of Louisiana Blues by Muddy Waters; he has a very nice guitar style and fills the room with lively sound; Kim could smell the tabasco, feel the humidity and dance of skeeters on her skin.
Salty Water reproduced here with just one skip in the video (the first of our technical gremlins) is his own composition - a lovely Hawaiian number that displays his guitar skills nicely. We were transported from rainy Cumbria to the sunkissed sands of the central Pacific - Hula hula! “How sweet things can be…” indeed. During the intermission he mentioned to me a similar song that he liked that’s titled Panama Hat, about a guy relaxing by the sea whose only concern in life is the adjustment of his hat brim to the optimum angle - wonderful! If you like that song you’ll love Chris’s Salty Water, and vice versa, probably. It was very mellow blues.
Chris James, versatile blues artist plays us some of his
“rough nasty blues with a touch of sophistication”
He followed this with Old Time Religion, a great song with fast tempo and at times his voice was very reminiscent of Elvis. So by now, we’d seen both his guitar play and vocals evincing considerable talent.
Finishing off with Irene, Goodnight, a song often used to terminate a musical evening, Chris quipped that we shouldn’t go home after this as Laura would be a tad disappointed.
I’ve never heard conversation die down so fast in a cafe live show. Laura James had us all hooked and rooted to our seats mid sound check! I’ve never heard a voice so sweet! She has the looks to go with her sound too - somewhere along the lines of Bridget Bardot and Raquel Welch in their respective primes. There’s not a trace of arrogance or hubris on stage or off either. In interview the hyper-talented seventeen year-old from Scotby, near Carlisle is delightfully easy-going and normal. On stage, however, she slips into the role of professional musician as you and I might pull on a sock. She enjoys live performance, especially in intimate venues and if she could have anybody of her choice present in her audience tonight, she’d want Leonardo DiCaprio to see her play. She particularly enjoyed playing in a Plug & Play event in London and at a flower festival in a church in Wreay. Laura James is already world class - she plans to apply to LIPA to complete her musical training.
Inspired by her love of the artist Klimt’s works, flowers and her father, music is fundamentally important to her life. “It’s the soundtrack to my life”, she explains, “I listen to it all the time, when I’m not playing it myself.” She’s been a musician for five years now, beginning at thirteen and her Dad’s immersion in music has been a powerful formative influence. She has also been influenced by Regina Spektor, Joni Mitchell, Bright eyes, John Martyn, Two Gallants, Damien Rice, Alison Krauss, Radiohead, bjork, Tegan & sara and Tracy Chapman.
Does she have a particular overarching style per se? “I don’t think so really,” she dodges my attempt to classify her music, “I try not to have a style. Each song speaks for itself and is a result of how I feel at the time.” Then she makes things tough for me and says, perhaps you can let me know what you think?” Hmmm. Perhaps it’s time for a good old fashioned opinion poll here folks.
Can you help me out, here. Check out the videos and let us know how you would describe Laura’s musical style. I’d say it’s emotive and in the popular vein with streaks of folk. She’s been likened to Alanis Morisette, Joni Mitchell, Michelle Branch and Lilly Allen She describes the ambience as hippy and that ties in with her love of floral motifs and flowers generally. Let us know what you think.
She writes her own songs, preferably in her old room as the light and ambience are conducive to the creative flow. “It takes time to write about what’s happened to me,” she continues, “as Wordsworth suggested, you don’t tend to write about something until you’re over it.”
At first the writing came very easily to her; her earlier songs were easier to write as she had a lot of thoughts and feelings just waiting to be expressed. Her later compositions took longer, perhaps also because the material had become more complex.
Laura performing ‘The Postman’
Here’s a superficial overview of her set. She played eight fabulous songs before the break and five after. The PA didn’t give much trouble until the last song - and then we witnessed something rather magical - Laura unplugged for a lucky number 13! There was something of a campfire atmosphere - very sweet, very hippy and very … Laura. Such a hush came over the audience that we could hear cutlery being sorted in the kitchen.
Kimmie and I were in complete agreement that Laura has the sweetest voice we’ve ever heard live.
In Circles she demonstrates great strength and flexibility with her notes - with fine control over her clear, strong voice; she has no difficulty with falsetto; her voice is soft, gentle but strong.
In All that I Ask her music demonstrates a maturity and thoughtfulness beyond that which you’d expect from her years; she shows wonderful control over her voice — with steady highs and solid lows.
The Postman has a faster tempo, with fast yodels, there’s a touch of country music here, also a reminder that there’s perhaps more in her lyrics than meets the eye.
She followed with Sunsets and tears (one of my favourites) and At the bottom of everything (a very fine Bright Eye cover) then returned to her own compositions with Do you know, one of the first she ever wrote; it sounds more pop-y, has a faster beat with a 90s sound.
Then she gave us a sweet cover of a cover, Such Great Heights by The Postal Service followed by Walk me Home, the first song she wrote, another effervescent poppy number that was reminiscent of Fiona Clayton.
The break positively buzzed with conversation about Laura - with compliments flying thick and fast. After the break we were treated to five more songs, What I Would Say is her most recent composition; a difficult one with “nonsense cords”, also her Mom’s favourite, with energizing, pulsing picking.
Then Give it all up which her best friends described as a “feel-good song” did just that, made us feel good.
For a change of mood we then heard This Town; about being stuck in a small town, before being picked up again in a superb cover of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman.
It was then that technical difficulties struck - the PA began to squawk as if it was picking up messages from Mars and Laura’s mother joked about an “Alien Invasion”. Chris Archer on sound, managed to subdue the little green men for a while, but eventually had to turn off the juice.
We then discovered that Laura sounded better without the speakers in her final song; unplugged it had more of a hippie feel, was more natural. The amps didn’t get in the way of her beautiful voice; the crowd were in awe. Some artists may need the aid of the amps, but thanks to a wee technical glitch Laura proved that she doesn’t.
‘God willing and the creek don’t rise’, there’s a very bright future ahead of Laura. She will play the dry stone stage at Solfest this year - and that would be reason enough to go there. She aims to study at LIPA in Liverpool for three years and then, if there’s any justice, the world will be her oyster.
You can buy some of her music on iTunes, see below, and watch her Myspace for her latest news.
Just in case you think that the PA was singled out by the Gremlins/ Martians, my video editing software has been behaving extremely strangely recentlybut now you can see the benefit of PhasingHz TV’s new Brightcove platform which gives us an outstanding clarity-to-speed of download ratio!
Enjoy!
Chris James links
http://www.fylde-folk-festival.com/artists/chris-james.html http://www.myspace.com/chrisjamesblues Laura James Myspace
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The next musical treat at Bojangles will be Rory Connor, Indie Music Awards 2008 nominee, on April 25th. Food served from 6 p.m., music starts at 8 p.m.