Philadelphia native Hemming celebrated the release of her self-titled debut album at Hotel Cafe on Friday night, and she gave a fierce performance with a set of intense and heartbreaking songs. Surrounded by three musicians she appeared both confident and visibly impressed by the special day, ‘I am sweating a lot’, she said at one point, while singing her songs with passion and a rare intensity.
Candice Martello aka Hemming was initially launched into the national spotlight when she won on Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project, the show created by Perry and VH1, and she got the chance to record a 10-song album with the famous songwriter, now released on Perry’s own label, Custard Records.
Hemming’s well-crafted rock songs, going from pop anthems (‘Home’ the only one of the record she co-wrote with Linda Perry) to delicate folk ballads (‘Paper Crane’) unfolded themselves with grace while exposing the experience of someone much older than she looked, someone like Lucinda Williams. Despite being incredibly young, Hemming sounded like a veteran of the music world, and her 9-song set demonstrated her great ability to write catchy and varied sonic textures, used as an outlet for her aching stories about heartbreaks and other unrequited love – ‘I’ll Never be the Man for You’ was a soulful ballad with some ooo-ooos which were not without reminding me about The Pixies’ ‘Where is my Mind’
Her voice was very powerful, nevertheless revealing a great vulnerability and a raw honesty which brings to mind Cat Power or Sharon Van Etten’s emotional vocals, whereas a few other songs (such as ‘Gone’), with a slight alt-country ballad vibe, could have belonged to Bright Eyes’ catalogue. And this says a lot about Hemming and her heartfelt lyrics, she immediately appeared to me like a genuine artist, who obviously doesn’t try to follow any current trend, but manages to have her own voice in this very busy music scene, while giving us a glimpse at her influences…
‘Hard on Myself’ had this great melodic hook while the vocals were bringing full emotion, while ‘Give it Away’ had a cathartic tearful howl. All her songs were carried by her intense and fierce singing, although the layered guitars were perfectly complementing her voice.
‘Do you think I’ll make you feel better?’ she sang during ‘Vitamins’, the song that made her win Linda Perry’s show, ‘Been trying to fill all the holes you’ve been digging for yourself/But I can’t replace everything that’s gone missing from your shell’, as a sort of confusing but smart dialogue between herself and some pills. ‘I need to keep moving so I never get cold/Cause my clothes always smell like cigarettes/And there’s beer bottle caps lying in my bed’ she continued during ‘Gone’. After the touching and quiet acoustic ‘Paper Crane’, a song she performed alone, she asked to the crowd, ‘Did anybody cry?’ only half aware of the impact of her songs on the audience, which was listening religiously.
Fresh from a tour with Rachael Yamagata, Hemming will be supporting legendary rocker Chris Cornell during his ‘Acoustic Higher Truth‘ tour this fall, and a full list of tour dates can be found HERE.
And in case you were wondering about her strange moniker, Hemming may be a Norwegian baby name ‘meaning something similar to big sister’ or ‘something like werewolf’… something going through a huge change, just like her.
Setlist
Hard on Myself
I’ll Never be the man for you
Give it away
Vitamins
Gone
Said and Done
Some of my Friends
Paper crane
Home
More pictures of the show here
