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Event
NATALIE LOVEJOY
$10 IN ADVANCE / $12 AT THE DOOR
6:30PM DOORS / 7PM SHOWTIME
21+
NATALIE LOVEJOY
One of my favorite quotes from a movie is from My Dinner With Andre, where he says, I could always live in my art but never in my life, and Ive always held that near and dear to my heart, said Natalie Lovejoy. This has been a huge lesson. In the last ten years, Ive kept my art mostly to myself and I acted out in other ways. It was such a drive in me to make this album.
Lovejoys third album, Hiding In The Light, is the first recording from the St. Paul-based ambient singer/songwriter since 2003. Although shes played plenty of live shows at the Aster Café and other Twin Cities venues, much of the last decade-plus was spent writing songs in private, raising her two children, Veronica and Lucinda, going through a divorce, opening her hair salon/performance space, Soapbox Salon in St. Paul, and falling in and out of love.
Im really connected with my clients, said Lovejoy, who hopes her story a single mother and independent business owner and recording artist inspires others, especially women in similar situations. The majority of my clients, Ive been cutting their hair for 15 to 20 years, and I have amazing relationships, and Im affected by their relationships as well. My clients and I are always communicating about life; very rarely do we talk about hair. I think thats why my music is so introspective, because thats what I do all day. In fact, one of the songs on this record was written about the end of one of my clients marriage.
The grist of all that experience can be heard in the deep grooves and dreamy melodies of Hiding In The Light, a work driven by Lovejoys huge heart, luxurious voice, and a batch of tunes that suggest Kate Bush holing up on a cold winter night with Lake Street Dive. And while Lovejoys first two albums, Wish I Could Fall (2001) and One False Move (2003) are good introductions to the self-taught musicians vulnerable tunes, the new Andy Thompson-produced collection of songs is her most full-bodied work to date.
Two babies close together kind of knocked me on my ass, said Lovejoy, whose effervescent personality gives way to a decided pensiveness on Hiding In The Light. Between that, working fulltime and trying to maintain a marriage, music got swept by the wayside. I didnt mean for it to be a full decade between albums, it just happened. But it was the slow and painful fade-out of my marriage that made me turn to music again. Writing and playing songs became my therapy and my salvation from an unhappy marriage.
Backed by the crack studio band of John Munson (bass), Alexander Young (drums), Dan Lawonn (cello), Josh Misner (violin/viola), Kevin Steinman (back-up vocals), Brian Tighe (guitar) and Thompson (everything else), Hiding In The Light was recorded at Thompsons Instrument Landing Studio in South Minneapolis. The Grammy-nominated Thompson (Dan Wilson, Taylor Swift, Jeremy Messersmith, Julia Douglass) proved to be as musically inspiring as was Lovejoys sometimes painful real-life subject matter.
Working with Andy was delightful, she said. He just got me; we spoke the same language. He could play exactly what I was thinking with almost no explanation on my part. I had complete trust in him. He helped me grow immensely as a vocalist, he challenged my playing, and he really got the feel behind each song. He was also unbelievably understanding.
My marriage ended just as I began recording with Andy. The poor guy barely knew me and I showed up bawling in his studio a few weeks after we got started. I would start crying during recording and say that I needed to take a walk. He would just sit back and say, No problem, take your time, were gonna get some really great raw emotion in these vocals today.
I had to stay in the moment. It was sort of a Zen experience. I had to turn my brain off from whatever was going on, or whatever attorney meeting or court date was happening, and sing my heart out.
You can hear as much all over the tracks, be it in the forlorn feelings behind Goodbye, Would You Be Happy?, Fallen From Grace, House of Coates, Fool, and the title track. Then theres Demolition Derby Queen, a radio-ready should-be hit that mixes broken hearts with car crashes and takes the whole lover-as-hot-mess oeuvre to another level.
Its been a long time in the making and gestating, but thanks to a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign thats attracted new fans as far away as Germany, Lovejoy and the rest of us now have Hiding In The Light as a soundtrack to our lives.
I was blown away by the Kickstarter process; it was an amazing experience, because it put me on the map, she said. I did so many personal updates on Kickstarter, that I think people got emotionally involved with the making of the record. Then my music, where I also put myself out there in not-so hidden ways Ive been getting lots of emails from people who say how they can relate and that its more than they expected, and thanking me for my honesty.
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LocationIcehouse (View)
2528 Nicollet Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 21 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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