Natalie Grace Alford

So I saw Natalie Grace at Beat Kitchen....I forgot exactly when. I first saw her on youtube, and I forgot exactly what prompted me to see her then but I was impressed enough to want to see her live. The youtube videos have her without her now signature whig. Many of the artists that I like are solo artists, people that just go it alone on stage without a backing band. They take the entire burden of performing exclusively on their own shoulders. Some performers keep it simple with just themselves and one instrument, Pezz and her accordion, Eliza Rickman and her toy piano. Alright, them two have played alone but they have also performed with a full band.

Natalie Grace plays her keyboard and divides the other tasks among her different voices. Some songs like "Caroline went past my window" need setting up. On her demo CD it starts off but it's fun to see it build. Each vocal is added one at a time, looped until the entire barber shop troupe is present and then the song begins. And "caroline" sounds deep. There is this massive payoff for seeing it build. There are artists that try your patients by setting up nothing but their own displayed self indulgence. Ms Natalie is not that kind of artist. She had on this huge multi-colored wig on. It's awesome. You just get really curious. So I'm fascinated with seeing Natalie Grace set up her songs. Within two her signatures become apparent, and endearing. An entire female, well honed barber shop troupe resides in Ms Natalie Grace. There's this strong motown feel to her. She seems to toy with the conventions without sounding dated, or contrived. So there are these two conventions that I see in Natalie Grace, the motown and the barber shop styles. Or at least that's how I begin to describe her. Her voice is not one instrument but many, like in "Oblivion". You hear the different ranges in her voice simultaneously; middle girly to deep womanly. And then there's the technicolor wig she so casually carries on with. You will remember what she sounds like and you will remember what she looks like.

Zig