Jen Cloher is an astonishingly versatile artist. She is often described as ‘Folk’, but things are not that simple. As we wrote in a recent article about her, her recorded output ranges broadly in style from, yes pure acoustic folk – in songs like the beautiful ‘Dark Art‘, from her most recent, self titled album, or the equally lovely ‘Shady Grove‘, which are respectively about, and performed in collaboration with her wife, Courtney Barnett. But she can rock, as in ‘Strong Woman‘. She gets close to Punk on occasions as on ‘Stone Age Brain‘, and she can even take on something of a late 1960s west coast feel, as in her magnificent cover of ‘The Loved Ones’ 1967 hit ‘Sad Dark Eyes‘.
When performing live, however, she tends now to come in two very different modes. Firstly, there are ensemble performances, with a truly astonishing band, consisting of long-standing collaborator Jen Sholakis on drums, Courtney Barnett on lead guitar who, freed from vocal duties, often plays even more amazing solos for Cloher than she does at her own gigs. And, finally, on bass, Bones (Andrew) Sloane, Barnett’s friend and band-mate since her days with ‘Immigrant Union‘. On other occasions, though, Cloher plays completely alone, with just her voice and an acoustic guitar.
Manchester has been blessed this year with a view of both sides of the coin. On Valentine’s Day, the Jen Cloher Band played the ‘Deaf Institute‘ and on the 2nd of November we got her all to ourselves at St. Michael’s. The venue itself is a small former chapel – an attractive and intimate all-seater space, not much known to rock fans as it is run by the Hallé orchestra. But it has lovely acoustics and suited Cloher down to the ground. She is a force of nature live. She has a quiet charisma that lets her hold an audience spellbound from the moment she reaches the mike. The songs she plays solo are often pretty much the same ones she plays with her band, although as she herself said, the acoustic performances do make it easier for her to move away from the “And here is the whole of my latest album” school of set list and reach back into her rich back-catalogue.
For example, she played two tracks from her first album, ‘Dead Wood Falls‘ from 2006: ‘Rain’ and ‘The Longing Song’ – the second of which is reputed to have been her late father’s favourite of her songs. ‘Mother’s Desk’ and ‘Fear is like a Forest’ appeared from 2009’s ‘Hidden Hands‘ album, the latter having also been covered recently by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile on their collaboration album ‘Lotta Sea Lice’. Meanwhile, ‘David Bowie Eyes’, ‘Needs’ and ‘Kamikaze Origami’ hail from 2013’s ‘In Blood Memory‘.
For all of this material, though, and that from the new album, the ‘unplugged’ approach gives an entirely different perspective. Classical music fans are used to being able to compare multiple interpretations of the same piece, with different conductors and/or soloists putting their own slant on a composition. But with rock/folk we are usually given just a single definitive recording. True there may be live variants, and other artists may produce markedly different cover versions but, for the most part, you get what is on the original record.
Inevitably, there are times when something from the band version has to be sacrificed when a song is played solo, for example Barnett’s two gloriously simple but melodic guitar solos from ‘Regional Echo‘. At first thought it seems almost impossible to envisage the track without them but, in practice, it works perfectly. The song just becomes still more of a hauntingly gentle lament. There is a feeling of loss to be sure, because that is what the song is about, but no feeling that anything is missing from the music itself.
Many of Cloher’s acoustic versions go a lot further than simply extracting the percussion and electric instruments, however. Some of the songs undergo a dramatic change of character. For example, with a full band, ‘Strong Woman‘ is a feminist rock anthem, but solo it becomes a lilting ballad, which brings out its autobiographical side more clearly, whilst the yearning pain of ‘Sensory Memory‘, becomes all the more apparent in this softer treatment. The song is about a lover (Cloher) enduring prolonged and frequent separations when her loved one (Barnett) is away on tour. But anyone who, like ourselves, has had to cope with a long distance, international relationship for any length of time will recognise the opening words only too well: “I start missing you days before you leave”.
The delicate nature of the acoustic approach makes it emotionally revealing in a way that the electric version, although more powerful, cannot quite match. The tender purity of Cloher’s voice shines through, as does the fact that she is an extremely good folk guitarist. In the band context she plays rhythm guitar to Barnett’s lead and her playing is inevitably somewhat overshadowed as a result. But on her own she has a lightness of touch as she plays endless subtle variants of chords, which is really lovely. Better yet – unlike so many of the recent gigs we have reviewed – that subtle quality was considerably assisted on the night by excellent, hi-fi quality sound engineering, that brought out the full beauty of her performance.
Cloher is a raconteur as well as a musician and the songs were interspersed with stories, sometimes about the background to a particular song, but sometimes just chat. For example, she started a conversation with the audience at one point which ended up with us discussing the venue name, St. Michael’s, and the use of the same name as the Marks & Spencer’s clothing marque. Even here, however, the audience remained in the palm of her hand. She never for a second looked like loosing control.
To get a flavour of the night – or indeed a memento – Cloher recently released an EP called ‘Live at The Loft and Loew’s‘ on her and Barnett’s own label, Milk! Records. It has four of her acoustic set songs and for the tour she had a special limited edition vinyl version, on sale only at the gigs. But a digital edition can be obtained as a download, and is very well worth a listen.
One of the nice things about Barnett and Cloher running their own record company is that they are able to bring over other artist from their stable as support acts, and they have signed up some real gems. In February Cloher brought Hachiku (a.k.a solo artist Anika Ostendorf) – a genuine genius with loopers, who builds complex multi-tracked music there and then on stage. Barnett was in Manchester in June and introduced us to ‘Loose Tooth‘, a 3 piece, two thirds female rock outfit who also greatly impressed and who have both an EP and an album available. We hope that at some point one of them will bring another Milk! act, ‘Jade Imagine‘, but this time it was the turn of ‘The Finks’, i.e. solo artist Oliver Mestitz. He was a great choice and formed the perfect foil for Cloher. His music consists of gentle, lyrical ballads accompanied by an electric guitar, but played in something of an acoustic, slow and lingering style, albeit often with a good deal of tremolo pedal.
He currently has a new album called ‘Rolly Nice‘, which was on sale on the merch stall, along with most of the rest of his output and let’s just say that we were impressed enough to buy one of everything he had to offer. Courtney Barnett’s early material is often filled with deadpan humour and social observation, and so is Mestitz’s, although their musical styles are very different. He has a yearning, slightly high pitched voice which, along with his guitar style, is serene and restful. But his lyrics are full of philosophical meaning mixed with meandering reminiscences that are very well worth following closely. Good examples are ‘When what changed us changed us‘ and ‘Body Language‘ – the latter being perhaps the artist on tour’s dream of home. It was enthralling, and the intimate space and good sound quality again made a big difference, with every word audible. It may seem strange for a feminist music site to recommend a male artist, but we’re not sexist, and we do.
In short, this was a magical evening with two marvellous artists. Cloher has been a personal favourite of ours for years, but even so her prodigious talent and magnetic stage presence continue to impress anew every time we see her. And we now have a memento to treasure: a signed vinyl copy of ‘Live at The Loft and Loew’s’ dedicated to ‘Hera Says’.
Hera Says.
‘Hera Says’ also has a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/hera.saysso.3
Hera says I should be the star now 