PHOTOS: True Detective Songstress Lera Lynn at World Café Live
There is an inherent all-sensory mood in the music of Lera Lynn. Old alcohol and smoke reside in the nostrils while the eyes can only faintly see the figures on the stage through the dimly lit room of sound. And there is the voice: a rich, sultry concoction that veers to country and folk, sometimes simultaneously. The guitar rumbles, sometimes gutturally, sometimes slight, layered with percussion that is never an afterthought. This sound certainly made her the perfect partner to the art of the second season of True Detective (for which she created the soundtrack).
Lynn backstage at World Café Live
I myself have been lucky enough to see it evolve from my first live encounter with her at Athfest in Athens, Georgia, in 2011. And to see her finally get a larger audience in the hard-working, dedicated and deserving way she has earned it is quite wonderful.
All of this was on display during her Sunday outing at World Café Live. Opening with her catchy swoon of a song in “Out to Sea,” with its refrain of “I wish I may/I wish I might” enveloping the decent-sized audience with an evocative longing. The show was a slow-burn wildfire, with Lynn and her tight-knit and loose backing band swirling though The Avenues and some older tracks with efficiency and then moments of utter rocking-out joy.
It was a well-honed mix of themes and energy. There was the brooding True Detective song “My Least Favorite Life” creeping up on our ears with haunting immediacy. Her take on Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire” is always a pleasure with its slow-dance rhythm. And another highlight was the all-vocal, everyone-around-the-mic cover of The Zombies’ “The Way I Feel Inside.”
No matter what Lynn touches with her vocals or her pen, it turns to musical gold. And with the concluding song, “Whiskey,” from her debut album, Have You Met Lera Lynn, the night was solidified as a concert not soon forgotten. It was an apt way to end a show where she took the audience on a ride through her musical psyche. I think we have not yet met the full Lera Lynn; she has too much great, new, exciting music to still serve up. More photos from the evening below.
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