Life is grand

Last night was Basia Bulat's concert at the First Unitarian Chapel, the venue was a long, narrow line of pews. The walls were covered with beautiful ornate woodwork shaped like churches or castles or something of that nature, as Basia put it, "it's like a jewelry box!". We managed a pew in the third row and listened to some interesting rag-time/country while we discussed the finer points of "Little Waltz" as we awaited the start of the show.

Meg Baird promptly showed up, sat down, and started playing without a word. She played a guitar by herself along with some spooky vocals about mountains, sunsets and stars. She seemed a little timid throughout her performance and kept her eyes closed which was different. She never did get to telling us her name, by I looked it up after; I would enjoy her music on a rainy summer day while I was dreaming of living somewhere else.

Basia and her gang (her brother Bobby and the viola player Allison, Holly was absent from this show) came on stage 20 minutes later and after thanking Meg jumped right into Heart of My Own. I was really looking forward to hearing this song live because the vocals at the beginning of the first chorus I think are really powerful on the CD. Of course anything live will blow a pair of lousy computer speakers out of the water but there is something entrancing about the way Basia can use her voice, she filled the entire chapel with it. There was a little kid, probably about 3 or 4 years old, sitting on the floor right by us that had to cover his ears when Basia came on stage and starting belting her songs out, the child had Basia smiling throughout the whole concert (I like to thing she'd have been smiling anyway). She followed with a personal favorite of mine, "The Pilgriming Vine", my dear friend Achsah Joseph gave me this song a few years back on our lovely invented holiday "daffodil day", so this was the first Basia song I ever possessed. It was nice to hear slight variation in the song* but maybe that's just because I have an older recording of the song, in any case it was very satisfying to finally hear it come to life.

In the middle of the show Bobby and Allison took a break and Basia played a few songs by herself. After her first song she stopped and asked if we would like to try the next song without the speakers because it was such a acoustic little room, we of course obliged. She picked up her ukulele and played out a floating rendition of "Sparrow" which without the subtle scratches of the mic and speakers gave the song a soft and gentle touch. While she was standing up there by herself it seemed as though she was singing the song for only you.

She continued to play out a mix of her first and second album with passion and energy in songs like "In the Night" and a tragic longing in "I Was a Daughter", it was exactly what I expected, anticipated, and dreamed of. Once she wad done my friend Tori leaned over and asked "Do they do encores in chapels?" and thankfully she did!

She played a couple more songs including a request much to my delight for "Oh, My Darling" and ended with the gorgeous gospel song "Hush". She plays "Hush" by herself with no instrument except stomping the ground with her feet to create a beat and of course using her golden voice.


Oh yeah, and...



I got a chance to meet Basia Bulat! She played a great show in a great venue, I hope I get to see her again soon.