Inspired by Live Music
October 3, 2016 • Los Angeles
I rarely get excited about live music, but I’ve seen two artists recently who are seriously worth checking out. Jill Freeman just put out an album titled A Handmade Life, inspired by folk tales and somehow simultaneously dark (“Letters from Murdertown”) and upbeat. The requisite categorization by the online music vendors labels her work as folk music, but it’s more nuanced than that. The album is worth a listen, and Freeman live is even more worthwhile. Happily there are an upcoming series of live performances that provide that opportunity. Go if you can; she’s an exquisitely talented songwriter and performer.
Another mind-blowingly fun performance this week was Tammy/Lisa, a one-woman show by Lauren Weedman, essentially Tammy’s retro TV variety show, complete with country music and all its cultural constituent elements: adultery, divorce, heartbreak, even being forced to deal with the other woman. It rarely happens that I can’t stop laughing, but Weedman playing Loretta Lynn talking up handguns induced just that experience. Tammy/Lisa was only on for a brief run Downtown, but hopefully we’ll get another chance to see Weedman’s energetic work again soon. It’s possible to see her live doing other stuff: she’s telling a story for The Moth at a Moth event in Anaheim in October.
