Wednesday 10 November. Natalie Grace Alford plays Pancho's Bar. I've never been there. The show originally is supposed to be at Ronny's. That place is such a dive, small and kinda gross. The place is underwhelming, and yet it has seen some really cool bands. And so they move all those shows to Pancho's Bar which is a block north. I don't know why but I don't blame them. And so I'm there at Pancho's on this Wednesday to see Natalie Grace. This girl belts out this deep and womanly howl. If she was your third grade school teacher Ms Nat instead of a singer, that voice would make you piss yourself from across the room when she catches you not paying attention. Everybody has a crush on her, and everybody fears "Iron" Ms Nat. Seriously, she has this booming, dominant voice. Natalie Grace can shout you down, and the next homeroom can hear it how badly you fucked up the homework. So in many ways I feel fortunate to have encountered her as this awesome singer rather than one in a pantheon of many traumatizing teachers.
Her voice is deep and booming, and her delivery is passionate and dominant. You have to hear how she emphasizes repeated lyrics. Natalie often rasps her voice like she's been screaming at you the whole time. Not that she does scream, but you get that energy from someone that hits you with her hips behind every punch. So I said she's passionate and dominant, but not in the indy rock star mode. I've really struggled as to how to describe her. She's not in the mold of PJ Harvey, Melissa Auf De Maur, Katie Jane Garside. She is indeed intense. There is a sincerity in her delivery. But she is different. Her full hearted belief in what she says resembles a soul music artist. Well let me explain that. She has this way of letting the innocent moment move you without filtering the full weight of sincerity. The artists that have this sort of thing into their identity and sort of wave it around are Soul Music artists. Some of Natalie Grace's early performances have her using hand claps, looping together a gospel like chorus. She played the keyboard in most of her performances. This was the first I've seen her with a guitar. And that changes things, but the constant thing is this blue-eyed soul. This term fits her perfectly in her stage presence, style of music. I have once described her music as being kind of doo wop, like her demo CD which I don't think Natalie just carries around her when she plays. That one day she had it, and I asked. And now I got a point of reference to compare the live shows to. The live versions of her songs are rapidly evolving away from the original demos. Still, if you like what Natalie plays live would you not want to hear how her music sounded when she first put it down?
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