photo by Sarah Kate Wong

The first performer was Julie Doiron. Before I get into her set, I want to share an interesting fact about her. She has three kids. Anyway, here’s one note I took on her set before I googled her the next day. “Their jam was like someone stirring spaghetti wrong.”  She played with a guitarist, and maybe somebody else. I’m not sure. I was in the way back and it was very crowded. I’m tall, but not tall enough. I had too much to drink to stand on that bench for long. Julie wore her hair in a ponytail and played simple songs with simple melodies from what I could gather. Her voice is good, the music is folk. She and the guitarist seemed to be having a great time playing together. The crowd as well liked the music.

The Bowerbirds. I liked them. I liked their drummer, and the mandolin player was good. The drummer looked good too. Phil and Beth are the main cats. She played the accordion and keyboard and sang, and Phil sang and played guitar. The songs were good and comforting. They sing well together. They even sang a song about Iowa. That got me excited as I’ve had two crushes from that state. If I had to describe their music in my way I’d say it’s music for small gods. Good gods, but small. In other words, music for good hearted super humans on the rise, but not quite at Heaven’s gate. Go Bowerbirds and go world.

—Miss Tornado