Laura Marling was playing at the El Rey theater on Wednesday night in LA, and I had to go checking the British woman who made Ryan Adams feel rather insignificant at songwriting! He actually said this in one of his tweets.
Among the audience I was probably one of the few not familiar with her music, you could tell, the public was really listening, very quietly, like in a church or something of this sort, an extremely rare thing where drinks are served! ‘You’re very polite’ she said mid-show, ‘I’m really having a good time.’
With her fragile silhouette, and her blond hair attached in a bun, she seems very natural in an anti-Lady Gaga kind of way, with no artifice at all.
She sings in a very traditional folk style, and tells stories with a very bright voice whose intonations could remind you Joan Baez at times, or Beth Orthon at other times. And this is what impressed me the most during the whole evening, she is extremely young, only 20 years old, but seems to write songs like Bob Dylan or Nick Cave.
Most of her melodies begin with a quietly sound which then amplifies with the help of her great band consisting of guitar or keyboard, cello, double bass, and light drums. The large use of cords on some of her songs gave a real sonic emotion even accentuated by the members of the band harmonizing with her powerful voice.
Her lyrics are strangely dark and seriously dramatic despite her young age, and her maturity transpires through songs which speak about the devil, ghosts, and night terror, definitively more old folk tales than fairy tales! After all she is the one who inspired the heartbreaking album ‘The first days of Spring’ by Noah and the Whale after her break-up with Charlie Fink.
She was talkative with the audience explaining many things between the songs, excusing herself for not knowing very well LA: ’I don’t really drive, so I haven’t really gotten to grips with L.A.’
Besides the songs from her last album ‘I speak because I can’ and some of her first album, she also did a cover of ‘Blues Run the Game’ by Jackson C. Frank, who was ‘English enough’.
The evening ended on an original note as she declared before starting her last two songs of the evening : ‘We don’t understand the concept of encore’, and then she explained that there will not be any encore, and we will have to consider the last song as an encore if it is what we really want. People laughed a little and left politely after her last song, respecting what she had said. Some kind of strange concept if you want my opinion!