Sometime during “Spring Cleaning”, performed mid set by Australian singer Johanna Cranitch at the first date of a November residency at Rockwood, with her band, Johanna And The Dusty Floor, your mind clocks over genres: is it doo wop, 60s chick singers, a Brill Building move, a folk harmony group?
Whatever it is, it is very good, and Johanna with her searing voice maneuvers between frontwoman, and lead in a vocal group, is a pure pleasure. The comparison might be the Roches after Robert Fripp got done with them but on her EP, The Forest, when she goes hard she sounds less folkie and more… naturalistic?
The half hour set suffered from one mistake, Johanna went behind her piano for the last two songs, and, considering, the swooping beautiful and scarily intense harmonies that closed the set I can see why she did it, still frontwomen should leave the stage at the end of the concert from the front and center. Otherwise, the set was just about perfect. The songs switch genres but are based around Johanna with Dani Williams and Anthea Williams backing her up, Dani mostly from behind the piano. The sound takes every song and digs it deeper till you find you are holding your breath, you keep expecting Johanna to run away from the group experience, to dash off into the hemisphere, but she uses the back up singers like she uses her bassists, she lets them carry her forward. And there is no guitarist, I am guessing because she uses the vocals to carry her melody so much she doesn’t need one.
What I might like to hear from Johanna is some soul music, I wish she would cover a Annie Lennox song like “Woman Kind” -not that the sound needs color, it shades perfectly, but because I would love to hear her stretch. Johanna’s voice is strong and subtle, she could throw in an Aria if she really wanted.
But what we have is plenty.
The band play what amounts to the EP plus a new song, they are close knit and tight on stage and Johanna is a relaxed and pleasant guide. Towards the end they play “Eliza” and for the third time in half an hour I find myself holding my breath. If you wanna hold your breath, Johanna And the Dusty Floor will be back on Rockwood on Tuesdays, November 16th and 30th at 7pm.