Sitting in a coffee shop earlier, listening to live music, recalling the medley of all the coffee shops I have visited in these many years, all superimposed upon one another in a dizzying array of times and experiences- since the advent of the coffee shop as a thing, as a destination, as an institution- it’s been decades now, of course, every one different, yet similar in resonance, in metre, in general expectation such that, even though I’d never been to this one, I could have, and all the people surrounding us, I could have known them, we could have met before or been friends, even though we weren’t- nearly a deja vu, but more a rhyme, a familiarity, a general comfort that comes with knowing a place, or a type of place.
The same goes for the singer, the fabulous Laurie Jones (https://lauriejonesmusic.com/laurie-jones). The tones, the sounds, the energy, the vocal nuances and inflections- you want to place them with someone familiar from the past, from the radio, from your musical memory library- the big melodic voice that tells a story, vacillating between rock, bluesy folk, country-esque, you want to conjure the Indigo Girls or Melissa Etheridge, maybe a little Natalie Merchant, some Janice, even Lyle Lovett sneaks in with respect to intonation, lyrics.
But at the end of the day, Laurie Jones is Laurie Jones, and worth a listen, then a few more.
The venue and the songstress vibrate with recognition
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