Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea were opening for the Black Keys at the Palladium, and I saw this woman wearing a long black dress came on stage backed up by 3 other musicians on guitar, bass and drums. The first part of her set was very poppy, big production, big voice and I was not that interested. Huge-voice-carried tunes, way too over-dramatic and sentimental are not really my taste. I thought to myself, is it a return to the female crooner, the chanteuse with big vocal chords?
But when she picked up her guitar, she became a sort of a cross between Roy Orbison and Loretta Lynn when she got produced by Jack White, and I became much more interested all the sudden. On some songs her voice was almost bluesy, on others it was just plain and huge, always powerful and overcoming any musical change, dominating the songs.
She is from Neptune, New Jersey, and if you want to hear what I’m talking about, go listen to her singing ‘My Baby Don’t Cry’ at the palladium on Monday night: