I think most people are drawn to Joanna Newsom because they’ve never heard anyone quite like her. Maybe its a little hard-to-believe that she has been able to make it as far as she has. First, let’s look at all she has stacked against her: her voice like a bunch of forks in a blender (we’re talking Yoko, here), her 4-year-old’s mastery of the piano, and the hassle of toting an 80 lb. harp to gigs and backwoods hippie love-ins.
Originality goes a long way, though – just look at the artistic heights that Tom Waits has reached with his throatful of gravel, or even a certain Robert Zimmerman with his pinched-nose whine. I do think that she is for real, and I have a rather smallish soft spot in my rather smallish heart for Joanna Newsom as well. Her voice becomes tolerable once you realize how talented she is in setting evocative lyrics to unique, twisted melodies. Her barefoot-hillbilly-just-seen-a-ghost imagery is pretty spooky stuff. The shrill vocals start to make sense after all. (w.g.)
Buy Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004)
Friday 22 August 2008: Joanna Newsom with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Center, Chicago IL (United States)