As Joanna Newsom’s long-time friend and drummer Neal Morgan nonchalantly approaches the microphone with nothing in hand but a book, it’s difficult to know what to expect. The end result is even more unexpected.
Morgan starts by singing a descriptive soliloquy to the audience. Throughout the rest of the set, this pattern fails to change. Sure, there is the occasional looped vocal harmony and scattered drum patterns, but Morgan continues to sing lyrics from within his onstage song book. The entire has a set has a feeling of Morgan sing-reading a bedtime story to the audience. From the merely polite applause, it seems to be working well at putting the audience to sleep. The set may be interesting, but perhaps Morgan should stay behind the drum-kit more often.
Years ago, Warren Ellis likened Joanna Newsom to “some yowling autistic playing a harp with a brick.” It would be safe to assume at this time Ellis had never seen the supreme talent in a live setting (or perhaps never truly listened). From the opening harp plucks of The Book of Right-On, Newsom’s performance is rich and assured. Newsom is a woman who seems wise beyond her years.
Newsom’s voice is an acquired taste, enough so to drive many away from her sublime recorded efforts. In person, her voice is so much more powerful and commanding that it would be difficult for the unconvinced to stay that way, Newsom switches between harp and piano effortlessly, constantly reminding the adoring crowd she is equally gifted at both.
None of this would have as much impact if it wasn’t for the talented backing musicians behind her. While at most times out of the spotlight (the violinists in particular), they are all integral to her tracks; they provide an excellent grounding to Newsom’s latest triple-album offering Have On One Me, and at other times fill up Newsom’s earlier, more stripped down tracks, making them large enough to fill a theatre.
As with any truly excellent performance, it is over much sooner than it should be. The crowd too feels this way, in between the thunderous applause following encore track Baby Birch are pleas for the utterly captivating woman not to leave the stage. It is hard not to be swept up in the moment. It is also thrilling to realise at 29, she most likely hasn’t quite yet reached her creative peak. With a performance this impressive, it’s hard to not be startled by that.
