SOUNDTRACK: LEDISI-“Pieces of Me” (Field Recordings, August 27, 2017).
I only ever heard of Ledisi from a Tiny Desk Concert. And here she is again.
I still haven’t heard of her anywhere else, but she still sounds amazing.
I absolutely love that she is singing from a balcony and that people start lining the streets to see and hear her. How cool would that be? Too bad she doesn’t sing a few more for them. But heck, it’s New Orleans, things like that probably happen all the time. Right?
There’s too much happening in New Orleans’ French Quarter — especially on a holiday weekend, and especially when hundreds of thousands of people are in town for the annual Essence Music Festival. There are living statues and five-piece bands and drinks a foot-and-a-half tall and people from all over the world ambling in the middle of the street.
But Ledisi, singing on a balcony in her hometown, stopped the whole thing dead. For a few minutes, with a song about the complications of being a woman, she held an unsuspecting, audibly appreciative crowd in the palm of her hand.
In this Field Recording [Ledisi Steals The Show] she sings a song I don;t know, “Pieces of Me.” But the crowd seems to. They even start interacting with her. So she shouts down to them, “I don’t hear you singing.” So they do, they sing with her.
As the song ends, she says, “Y’all sound good down there.” And then as they start trying to talk to her she says, “I didn’t know I was gonna be out here…. I was trying to get something to drink.”
If that was someone I liked I would be totally psyched if that happened to me.
[READ: January 6, 2017] “My Curls Have Blown All the Way to China”
This story looks deep into the psyche of a woman who has just been informed that her husband is leaving her.
The story is full of lists: like a list of clothes to buy for him and for her–she is preparing to find out what clothes they should bring on their trip to Spain.
That’s when he tells her.
During the factory outing to Netanya , a month ago–you remember–when you didn’t feel like going with me, I met this woman there, and afterward it turned out that we kept seeing each other and now, well, I’ve decided to leave you, even though I’m very sorry about it. Honestly. But what can I do Bracha? I just have no choice.
Okay, so that’s pretty fucked up.
Rather than going to Netanya, Bracha was getting her hair cut short–and her long curls blew away. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 