Photo Credit: Dara Avenius
I’ve long been a fan of The Charlotte Church Show, Youtubing it and enjoying both the sense of humor of the host and the duets she often performed with her songbird guests. So of course when I found out that Ms. Church had an upcoming listening party at The Eldridge, an intimate and exclusive venue on the Lower East Side, I jumped at the chance to attend!
Shortly after midnight, a polite but appreciative group were treated to a listening party by Ms. Church, a singer who has dazzled the Pope and countless millions of people in the past. In the low lit venue, the young woman with the angelic voice stood and sang, simply accompanied by her guitarist and co-writer, Jonathon Powell.
Giving the audience an insight into her heart, the first group of songs were noted for their melancholic tone. Let me put it this way – if you are going through a breakup, and you live in the UK, buy her album "Back to Scratch" immediately and wallow along with Ms. Church. If you are not going through a breakup, then buy it anyway, just because the songs will break your heart. They have a very pop yet folksy sensibility, the kind of thing one could see Joni Mitchell writing and singing if she were making her name today.
In between each song however, Ms. Church lightened the tone with her noted sense of bawdy humor, appealing to the audience to play along with her. This included, when there were some technical difficulties, mock-interviewing an audience member and perfectly mimicking her “Lawn Guyland” accent.
She debuted a new song, “Only Bruises”, which hopefully will be on a future album. She continued the heavyhearted tone with “Unravelling”, from her recent album “Back to Scratch.” The next song, “The Story of Us” was just a gorgeous song. I hate to use the writer cliché of “haunting”, but if the word fits, use it, and so use it I must. In this song, one could hear the soprano voice that made her famous as a child, but couched in the heartbreak of an adult who has been through a bit more of life, that voice takes on another level. Photo Credit: Aurora Pfeiffer
“Snow”, a song written solely by Mr. Powell was a sweet tune that plays well on the ears. Taking the party to a more upbeat tone, next came “Cold California” which isn’t about actually about California at all, but camping – in Wales! After a quick riff about the difference between Wales and England, and a brief questioning on sports rivalries to explain this difference, she introduced a song written by neither a Welshman nor a Brit, but an Irishman. Her newest single “Don’t Think About It” is a pop tune best described as groovy. Yes, groovy!
The final song was introduced as a pseudo-encore song, but in the cozy venue, it would have been silly to exit and re-enter, as noted by Ms. Church. Therefore, she launched into her most well-known song, “Pie Jesu”, dazzling the audience easily. The voice has more than retained the innocent beauty of the child, but has also grown into that of a young woman who has had to abandon the blind faith of childhood through heartbreak and loss.
