SOUNDTRACK: JULIA JACKLIN-Live at the Newport Folk Festival (2017).
I saw Julia Jacklin open for First Aid Kit and while I was looking for music by her I found this, her first show at Newport Folk Festival.
This show is a good representation of her live show, except that with when I saw her, she threw in a couple more upbeat songs–this set is a bit monotonous. Or maybe that’s what an 11M crowd needs.
It’s often a sparse crowd that turns up to see an 11 a.m. set at a music festival — but not so at the Newport Folk Festival. When Julia Jacklin took the stage on Saturday morning, she seemed shocked to be faced with a tent full of attentive onlookers. (If it were any other festival, she pointed out, she’d probably be playing to an audience of four — and four hung-over people, at that.)
She played nine songs, several of which she played when I saw her.
“Hay Plain” is a slow meandering song it takes almost 4 minutes before the full band kicks in, but when they do it really elevates the song. ““Lead Light” she played when I saw her. It has a kind of old school swing to it, almost 50s rock and roll. The song build and stops several times.
“Cold Caller” is another slow-mover. Midway through there’s a really cool–and to my mind, much needed–wicked guitar solo. The backing vocals on “Motherland” mid way through the song perk things up. She lets her vocals linger more on this one which shows of the power more.
“LA Dream” it is indeed dreamy and sweet and is mostly just her guitar. “Eastwick” is a cool song that grows faster and louder in a rather slow and deliberate manner. “Coming Of Age” and “Pool Party” are slow brooding song. “Pool Party” sounds familiar but defies what’s expected from a song with a title like that.
For the last song, “Don’t Let The Kids Win” the band left and it was just her on stage with her guitar. The lyrics are so good and so well-delivered, it’s a real high point.
So, overall I find her songs to be pretty but a little flat. She just not quite my thing. But every time the rest of the band stepped up, the songs were much more fun for me (even when they werent “fun” songs).
To read some lyrics and what it was like to see her in person, check out this post. That plaid skirt must be a trademark.
[READ: October 1, 2018] “When We Were Happy We Had Other Names”
This story is about death.
It opens in a funeral home, as the director is meeting with the protagonists Jiayu and her husband Chris. The story is set in the States–Jiayu thinks about how much stranger living in the States would have been for her if it were fifty years earlier–but that’s doesn’t directly impact the story, exactly.
The gut punch of the story comes as we realize–it is mostly alluded to–that their son Evan has killed himself. Their daughter Naomi is off at college and while she does come home for the funeral, she also cuts off a lot of access to her.
Jiayu and Chris spent a lot of time with grief–they asked if they had done something wrong–Evan had seemed so happy. But things did have to move along. Would they buy pumpkins for the holiday? Christmas trees? Would anyone notice or care if they didn’t?
But thinking about death was an all-consuming act for Jaiyu. She wound up creating a spreadsheet of all of the people she knew or had met who have died. She entered birth and death year as well as cause of death. She wanted to test her memory, so she didn’t look up anything. By remembering each person it would prevent them from become generically dead. (more…)
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I were looking forward to this show although we both groaned a bit when we saw it didn’t START until 9PM. Good grief.
I Just Read About That... 