London-based singer-songwriter Emmy the Great opened at the Triple Door last week. She is on tour with Beth Orton in support of her third studio album, Second Love. Sporting her signature braided pigtails, she played a 20-minute set to an enthusiastic audience.
Emmy the Great
It was no Saturday In The Park during the downpour prior to Chicago taking the stage and intermittently during their 2+ hour set. But hearing their classic songs again sure did Make Me Smile as Chicago brought their Heart And Soul Tour to the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery last week for a sold-out show. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year and will celebrate their 50th anniversary next year. Four of the founding members are still going strong – Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow and Walter Parazaider. Paul Allen (Microsoft cofounder) had a fourth row center seat and Rita Wilson (Tom Hanks’ wife) opened.
Chicago
Paul Allen
Rita Wilson
Show Preview: Ana Popovic @ Jazz Alley – Tuesday June 28th
Ana Popovic – photo by Kirk Stauffer
Ana Popovic is in Seattle! She’s got two nights at Jazz Alley (sorry about the late notice, and that you might be missing her first show, which is tonight), where she’ll play her second show as well at Jazz Alley tomorrow, Tuesday June 28th. The blues/jazz/funk singer-songwriter has given fans eight extremely well-reviewed EPs, and, having a vigorous voice combined with expert, passionate guitar skills, Popovic is in the lead of current blues music. She’s a great. When she starts off her new work, Trilogy, with “Love You Tonight,” it’s all about confidence – and, of course love.
Popovic, now based in Memphis, Tennessee, survived the Balkan War after being taken in by The Netherlands. I mention this for a couple reasons: it’s a blessing she and her family made it, and, how amazing it is she got into the blues!
~Dagmar
Mirah & Jherek Bischoff @ the Neptune, June 8th
Review by Nick Nihil
Mira & Jherek Bischoff
Jherek Bischoff’s lack of the enigmatic is what makes him so fascinating. Cartoonishly gangly and coiffed, his sincerity assures he is not a mere construct of irony. So is it with his art that he has keenly drawn the finest of lines between high-minded new music and broad accessibility. His orchestral works from his forthcoming album, Cistern, live in the post-minimalist realm of floridly expressive, repetitive phrases, while harking back to pre-classical motifs. The title piece’s crescendo invokes Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, sticking around for only 4 or 5 minutes; “Wolf,” with its pummel drones and discord, invites the idea of fear, while keeping it at a safe distance. Bischoff is genuine and imaginative enough at crafting series of 4-minute chamber pieces that don’t give the listener apprehensions that come with producing longer works. More often than not, they exist as beautifully orchestrated, fully-formed ideas.
With Mirah, Bischoff’s an equally brilliant arranger and interpreter as he is a producer of his own material. Having worked extensively on her most recent (and best) album, Changing Light, his dramatic yet modern sensibilities truly bring her already arresting blend of cerebral, metaphor-rich story telling an emotional candor. They’re both a bit quirky, but neither is ever postured. As a vocalist, I’ve heard few singers and songwriters who have her skill at wringing melodic invention out of wordy passages (usually one suffers in the other’s presence). At the same time, she displays an equal comfort in her more ‘songwriterly’ introspective numbers such as “Gold Rush” and “Radiomind,” as well as her Euro-cabaret Latin-flavored dance numbers (she has some moves, too). And many props to the sound engineer who was able to keep her voice and lyrics clear over the widely dynamic chamber ensemble.
I had the pleasure again last week of covering Della Mae at the Tractor Tavern. The Grammy-nominated bluegrass quintet – Kimber Ludiker, Celia Woodsmith, Jenni Lyn Gardner, Courtney Hartman and Zoe Guigueno – played in support of their self-titled album.
Della Mae