Jolie Holland makes a GREAT SHOW!; or: How to Win Gabrielle's Respect (or, at least, one way to do it)

The title, part one:

Though I prefer the older albums, which carried an atmosphere of an earlier era, the new album still holds my interest, as Jolie Holland is one of my favourite singers. She has a voice that is uncannily well suited to bluesy, countryish folky music; a sort of slow, drawling lilt (which is, as Gabrielle pointed out at the show, lower pitched than her bass player fellow's [more on him later]) that fairly drips with a sincere emotion and a clear——a lucid——tone.

I would have liked to have heard a couple of my favourites ("I Wanna Die" [more on that later] and "Stubborn Beast"), though I did get to hear my other two favourites, so I won't complain too much; these being: "Adieu False Heart" and "Old Fashion Morphine." Though the latter does work better when it involves horns as it does on the album. Still an awesome song, though, and played with just the right sort of sway and slide.

Everything was played superbly (though I think the other guitarist could've been turned down a wee bit during most sections).

The "more on that later" for the bass player: he told a whale joke that, though incredibly, geekily funny, I can't repeat here. Not because it's naughty ('cause when would that ever stop me, am I right?), but because it's a joke that needs to be told out loud.

The "more on that later" for "I Wanna Die": see, I would've loved to have heard it live, but, really now, I didn't feel right about yelling "I wanna die" at the show. Maybe someone would have misinterpreted things. Also, I wanted to ask, after the show, if it was in any way referencing "House of the Rising Sun" in a continuation of the American revisioning of old broadside ballads. Since I didn't actually get the chance (big crowds around her), I'll assume the answer is yes. It just makes sense that she'd be involved in the continuous evolution of ballads, in the malleability of the form or in a commentary on it.

It was a great show, no doubt, and I'm glad I got to see it.


The title, part two:

You can:

— be of a more diminutive stature than anticipated when appearing on stage.
— drink (white) wine from the bottle on stage and follow that up later on with what was (probably) rum 'n' Coke.
— wear a ginormous ring on one of the fingers of your fretting hand and still manage things with no visible difficulty.
— be pretty much awesome (this last one, I think, might be a requirement [i.e., there's no wiggle room on this one]).

Wicked times.