Concert Report: Gabrielle Louise

Gabrielle Louise's itinerary said she was coming into Seattle at 1:40. Dan offered to pick her up, so I let him go while I continued to work on setup. After they had a bit of an adventure that included hanging out playing songs while waiting for the van to cool down from overheating, I met up with them at SoulFood around 4 or so. Clint was in, so I got to make a full set of introductions while we were all getting drinks. Then Gabrielle and I headed back to the house, while Dan went on some errands.

The weather was sunny, but a bit on the chilly side, so Gabrielle opted for an indoor concert. Besides, that would allow her to play without a PA, which she was looking forward to. She practiced a song she needed to learn for a friend's wedding, while I finished making the soup. I have to say that I'm very fond of having an outstanding live performer playing in my kitchen while I cook. If I could make that happen more often, I'd probably cook more!

As is fairly typical, I really had very little idea how many people were coming, and who they might be. But all I can really do is let it happen, and hope it works out well. In this case, it worked out very well. We had a few new faces, like Sarah, Sean and Dave, as well as a number of old friends. We wound up with about 15 people total, which, for the space, is just about perfect. We'd certainly like more, for the artist's sake, and we could definltey make room. But 15 is a nice number.

After a bit of food and socializing, Gabrielle settled in to play the first set. She shared songs like Pirates of Mental Space and I'll Turn Myself in on Monday. Sometimes her sound was fairly solidly folk, but there were flavors of a lot of other influences in there, as well. She told stories around her songs about various adventures, including her time in Argentina and an interesting experience with needing a tire replaced. The result was an engaging performance that the whole audience thoroughly enjoyed.
After a break for a bit more food and socializing, we reconvened for another amazing collaborative song circle. Gabrielle's friend Sean opened things up. We also had Dan, Eric, Jean, Geli, and a couple more songs from Gabrielle. Bill provided accompaniment on djembe. Dave let the circle go by the first time, but contributed a song the second time around. I know these circles are a lot of fun for listeners like me, but it's always really cool when the musicians get into hearing new sound and ideas around their songs. Something tells me I really ought to be recording these things...

At the end of the night, a few folks wandered down to check out the new space Dan's created, and to hear a bit about the project he's working on. But if you want more information on that (or if you want to experience one of these song circles!), you'll just have to come out and join us!  :-)

For more pictures, please visit the gallery.