By virtue of the type of music Joanna Newsom makes, it would be very easy to simply indict her on the charges of willful obscurantism. While this is an expected if very unfortunate side effect of her use of Shakespearian diction and off-the-beaten-path instrumentation, it is, in point of fact, plain wrong. Any illusions one might have as to her intentions are immediately dispelled by her sincere love for making music.
This sincerity is something that is best observed live, without the inconvenient translating mechanism of the recording process.
Rather fortunately then, she will be performing a sold out show at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on March 31 From there she will no doubt prove half of us right (those who are convinced she's a fantastic musician/performer/songwriter/ etc.) and half of us wrong (those who are just as firmly convinced she has little to offer beyond pretension and harp skills).
The show will start at 8 p.m. with opening act Robin Pecknold, best known as the front man of the folk group Fleet Foxes.
Robin Pecknold covering Neutral Milk Hotel's "Two-Headed Boy" via I Guess I'm Floating
It's likely that if by now you've not heard of Fleet Foxes you have been living under a pretty solid rock.If that is in fact the case, we would politely ask that you step out from that shelter and give a listen to the pitch perfect harmonies and beautifully cavernous production on the group's self titled debut full length album. Rest assured, you will not regret it. Over the course of their two releases (the aforementioned full length and the Sun Giant EP) Fleet Foxes, helmed in large part by Pecknold, have a clearly mapped musical concept that resides at the corner of Fleetwood Mac Boulevard and Grizzly Bear Avenue. His performance is not to be missed.
As for Newsom, she's got a bit more of a complex musical heritage. Similarly drawing from Fleetwood Mac (see Have One on Me's "Good Intentions Paving Company") she further seamlessly integrates aspects of classical, British folk from the 60s and 70s, Appalachian bluegrass, rock, and country.
With this mixed bag of reference points one might presume her albums to uneven at best and downright multi-polar at worst. She however handily avoids this by imbuing every bit of music she releases with what only be described as a uniquely personal flair. Even when other artists cover her music (for instance, when Pecknold covered "On a Good Day") the songs are very clearly Joanna Newsom's. Despite the drastically different approaches on her three long-playing albums, they are all clearly from the same source.
The Milk Eyed Mender is perhaps the most straightforward Newsom album both in structure and scope, making it arguably the best introduction to her work. Most of the songs employ a more simple "verse chorus verse" approach, and few make it over the five-minute mark.
If anything, this album is a crystal clear testament to the quality of Newsom's songwriting. The bulk of the record are solo performances on either harp, piano, or keyboard, disproving any naysayers claiming that her music is nothing more than over arranged puffery.
If The Milk-Eyed Mender was a cementation of her talent, Ys is Newsom using that talent to stretch her legs and walk around. With the help of Jim O'Rourke, Steve Albini, Van Dyke Parks, and innumerable others, Newsom made Ys into an arrestingly complex and beautiful work. The arrangements are more complex, the lyrics more involved, the musicianship more generally impressive.
Basically Ys takes everything in Newsom's previous work and turns it up to eleven. This is perhaps the most over the top album you will ever hear that uses a harp as its central element. Not because it 'rocks' per se, but because it is so bursting at the seams with ideas. Because of this seemingly endless font of ideas, the album feels immediate and almost off-the-cuff, while never appearing to flit too quickly from one idea to another. Ys will likely continue to be listed as one of the best albums of this era indefinitely, and rightly so. The album's ratios of pop to art, folk to classical, and accessibility to avant-gardeism are of nearly unparalleled excellence.
The tour that brings Newsom to the Buskirk Chumley, however, is in support of her newest opus Have One on Me. As a triple album, each disc the length of a standard album, I don't use the word "opus" lightly- this album is truly the definition of ambitious. That being said, the arrangements are scaled back a bit. Gone are the Van Dyke Parks string arrangements, replaced by a broader selection of instruments playing markedly less central roles.
For all of its expanse, at the core, Have One on Me is a songwriter's album. What gives the album its strength is that Newsom has developed into an even more expert songwriter. The clearest sign of this is the vastly varied song length. "On a Good Day" is under two minutes, while "Have One on Me" is nearly twelve. Surely Newsom is a songwriter in tune with precisely how best to serve the songs she's created.
Undoubtedly the upcoming performance will feature songs from the entire course of her career. Many songwriters are unable to do this, because of the pure fact that it takes most artists numerous attempts to truly hone their craft. Newsom is different.
She sprang on to the music scene with a fully formed vision, and has only gotten better with time. If ever the question crosses your mind as to whether or not this concert is worth your time and money, let the answer be nothing but a resounding yes.
Joanna with boyfriend Andy Samberg and Craig Robinson.
-Taylor Peters
