Sara Watkins / April 11th, 2008 / The Plaza Club / Vancouver, Canada
There
are times in life when you get to meet someone in person and you discover that
the individual is just as beautiful as the music that she performs. Pop Folk,
singer / songwriter Sara Watkins is one of those people. On April 11th
I had the opportunity to take in a Sara Watkins concert at the Plaza Club in
Vancouver, Canada, where she was opening for country artist Tift Merritt. The
audience quickly warmed up to the gentle, soft-spoken twenty-seven year old
from San Diego, as she alternated between playing her fiddle and ukulele,
while singing mostly original compositions.
Watkins whose first taste of the limelight came as the fiddler for Nickel Creek, a progressive bluegrass trio, also comprised of, her brother Sean Watkins and mandolin player Chris Thiel, opened her set with “London Bridge,” and followed it up with her original composition “All The Time.” It was however, her beautiful cover of Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poney’s 1967 hit song, “Different Drum,” that really caught her audience’s ear. You could hear people sighing, and quietly affirming the gifted singer’s emotive vocals, particularly as she served up the lines, “Yes, and I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty / All I’m saying is I’m not ready / For any person, place or thing / To try and pull the reins in on me.” “Different Drum,” is my favorite all time song, so it is difficult for me to admit that anyone comes close to matching Ronstadt’s recording of the Mike Nesmith tune, but Watkins, while accompanying herself on the ukulele, came oh so very close.
Watkins is not the most dynamic performer you are ever going to encounter on a stage, but she does quietly engage her audience, with a down-home friendliness, that builds a warm bond between herself and the concertgoer. Her talent is such that after awhile you really do not care if she ever moves on stage or her voice ever gets louder when she is talking to her fans. How can you not like a woman who says she recorded a Tom Waits song on her CD because it is one of her dad’s favorite tunes?
The mood changed from quiet to an old-fashioned barn hoedown when Watkins grabbed her fiddle, stomped her feet to the beat and stirred up the crowd with another of her own songs, “Jefferson.” By the time, she finished playing Watkins’ the audience was in a raucous mood.
Dressed in blue jeans, brown open toed sandals and a light pink flower patterned blouse, Watkins, seemed at her best vocally, while performing softer, more reflective songs, and during my brief conversation with her following the show, it was easy to detect that her songs are infused with a beautiful spirit that is genuine and flows naturally from her. Songs such as “Where Will You Be,” appear to be ideally suited for her demeanor.
Sara Watkins’ current tour may be the first of her solo career, but Riveting Riffs predicts there will be plenty of tours in the future, and it will not be long before she is the headliner with someone else opening for her.
Reviewed by Joe Montague
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Reviewed April 11th, 2008
Riveting Riffs wishes to thank Live Nation for making it possible for us to review this Gig
