i caught the tail end of Kate Schutt‘s set, who traveled to Austin from outside of Toronto, Canada. as i was climbing the club’s stairs i realized she was singing a Whitney Houston cover-- “How Will I Know?” and i hesitated -- i had a freshly painful and alive sunburn, very little dinner, and i really wanted to buy some plums before seeing Kalu James. (hey, it’s summer-- i had just tubed down the Comal River) Kate’s voice was strong and pretty, so up i went. she was playing an electric guitar and had a bass player & kit drummer. this was a mellow, stripped-down, and slowly funkified version.. possibly anti-pop, groovy, and sad. i was won over in a matter of minutes. i only got to catch a couple of original songs, one solo and one with the band. her lyrics were poetic and sensitive, and her guitar had a slight effect on it that gave it a jazzy feeling. she had a lovely clear voice-- one born for singing-- and had a way of bringing the room to quiet introspection. i need to learn more.. i’m going back for more since she‘ll be in town for a bit!!
i ran to get plums, and returned for Kalu James.
Kalu James was born in Nigeria, and moved to the USA in 2001. his first USA home was not Austin, Texas-- it was Rochester, New York. he moved to Austin in recent years to chase the musical dragon. apparently Austin received Kalu well-- June 11 was announced by the City of Austin this year to be Kalu James Day-- and on June 11, 2009, he performed for the mayor at City Hall. replete with sunburn on this july 3rd, i finally got to see Kalu do his thing.
my first impression was: this guy has got a set of pipes. my last impression was: this guy has soul, love, humility, and a set of pipes. he is primarily a vocalist and a great rhythm guitar player. he played with a kit drummer, bass player, and lead electric guitar-- Kalu’s guitar was an electric-acoustic. Kalu has a way of delivering a full and uplifting sound, regardless of how many or how few musicians are on stage with him. he blends blues, straight-up rock, soul, and reggae in his original songs-- at times eliciting howls from the audience when his guttural vocal talents came forth. for several numbers he invited Austin’s Hellfire Horns (a trio--sax, trumpet, trombone) to play with him, including a show-stopping cover of Ray Lamontagne’s “you are the best thing”. he brought it straight to 1976.
his instinctive ability to capture the upbeat on his guitar added a west african flavor to his music at times, creating a musical buoyancy you don’t hear in most ’american’ songs. his acoustic set was peaceful, thoughtful, sincere. my favorite was a song whose chorus rang “ there’s a war outside, my friends, against our future”. his self-narrative “Austin bound” had a jazzy swing to it, and we even got treated to ten-- only ten-- seconds of Prince’s “sexy MF”. the show’s encore was a cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”-- a la 1970’s with horns. i’ve read that Otis Reading and Marvin Gaye are Kalu’s influences, but there were many moments that had Stevie Wonder’s name all over it.. just before ending, Kalu came off the stage and joined the folks on the dance floor at his own gig, blending in as he does so well with the rest of Austin.
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