SOUNDTRACK: ALICE SMITH-Tiny Desk Concert #700 (January 31, 2018).
I had never heard of Alice Smith before, which I guess isn’t totally unsurprising given the blurb:
For those not familiar, Smith made a big splash among true-school heads in 2006 with the release of her debut album, For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me. That record, whose title is a play on “The Rainbow Connection,” brimmed with an arcane magic, and it created a legion of lifelong fans.
Smith’s live performances usually highlight songs from For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me, her 2013 album, She, and her repertoire of cover songs. But for her Tiny Desk performance, Smith gifted us with three stunning song premieres that left the room entirely in her thrall.
Smith’s voice is great (although I found the voice of her backing singer, Kristin Brooks, to be even prettier. I don’t think you could hear the other backing singer, Chauncey Matthews, at all).
Since the blurb talks about each song, I’m just adding my comments at the end
The first song, “Mystery,” feels like walking into the home of that friend of yours who is clearly more worldly than you, where there’s always a cool breeze, no matter the season. [I really liked the low-key nature of this song].
The second song, which is so new that it doesn’t have a title, exudes the liminal uneasiness of being out of tune with yourself. The wisdom of the song draws from the notion that the top of Maslow’s pyramid is found within. [Alice’s voice is really nice in this catchy, rather conventional R&B song].
The closing “Something” is an undulating soul search that attacks and recedes like a cloudy beach morning. Smith was unabashedly in her pocket here, alternating between falsetto, tremolo and touches of jazz. This dash of Broadway at an office cubicle is what makes the Tiny Desk series so special. [This sounds very Broadway in the beginning. I didn’t care for all of the keening and whooping near the end though].
So I am clearly not a true-school head (nor do I know what that means). But I did think her voice was quite nice. She introduced the band at the end, first name only. The blurb has their last names, but didn’t include guitarist Frank at all: Dennis Hamm keys, Greg Clark drums.
[READ: November 5, 2017] All’s Faire in Middle School
I really enjoyed Jamieson’s Roller Girl. It was a great story and it featured roller derby!
I was excited to read this story, but I was a little concerned that Jamieson was going to try to shoehorn in a conceit that Middle School is like the Middle Ages or something. Well, I needn’t have been. Jamieson does something that might be even cooler than Roller derby–she sets her story at a Ren Faire!
Imogen and her family work at the local Ren Faire and have done so for years. Her father is a part- time actor (and pool salesman) but his passion is being the bad guy at the Ren Faire. We meet a whole cast of characters who work the Ren Faire. Some stay put and only work there, but others travel and work the circuit.
But Middle School is also in the title. It’s not just that Imogen is going to middle school. Up until this point she has been home-schooled. So she is starting middle school and school at the same time! (more…)
I Just Read About That... 