From Later

A nice perk of my massive comcast bill is having the music channel Palladia.  Why's that a perk?  Because the excellent BBC show 'Later... with Jools Holland' is on it.  If you've never heard of it, 'Later...' has been on for twenty years and is a live music show -- around six different artists are in a studio together, where they take turns playing songs in front of each other and an audience, and it's all broadcast (I believe) live.  It's pretty cool and makes for some great juxtapositions, as well as great performances.  Look it up online and you'll find all kinds of clips from the show -- it's almost like the old Peel sessions from Radio One, but on tv.

I've been taping the current season and catching up with episodes every now and then.  It's great to see some favourite artists live, like Jack White and Brett Anderson; it's also cool to check out some artists I've heard of, or who are famous, on the show, such as Sharon van Etten and the Beach Boys.  Another cool thing is hearing artists I've never heard of before on there and being blown away by their amazing voices, which is what happened last time I checked the show out.  I guess I've got a thing for female singers with big voices at the moment, as both the singers that stood out to me most recently fit that description.  

First up is Beth Hart, who was on a few weeks ago.  Never heard of her before, know nothing about her, but her voice was amazing.  I can't find the clip from 'Later...', but it was a great performance -- it seemed like it was no effort at all for her to sing, and that she was using her authentic voice.  Here's a different live clip I found (I don't think it's as good):

Lyrically it's nothing special, but I do think her voice, especially as I heard it on 'Later...', is pretty amazing.

My second find is Natalie Duncan -- similar in that she's got a big voice and she's on the piano, but different since she has a band and seems to put a bit more effort into her singing:

Again, no info, but she looks very young and seems like a new artist.  The song seems like it may have something to do with 'Skyfall', the newest James Bond flick, but I don't know of any connection.  I really like this track, even after a few more listens today.  

Hearing these two slightly different artists reminds me of another who also had a big brassy voice and was tatt'ed up a bit like Beth Hart is.  She comes to mind as I'd heard her again on the radio quite recently.  I refer, if you haven't guessed, to Amy Winehouse.  'Back to Black' is what I heard a few times recently, and I was really struck by how evocative that song is -- when I listen to it I can see scenes, places, people, in my mind's eye.  

I think you're better off just listening to that song and ignoring the video -- let your imagination do the ... imagining.