{"id":9131,"date":"2011-10-14T12:28:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T16:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/?p=9131"},"modified":"2011-10-14T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T16:44:09","slug":"sierra-noble-at-the-living-room-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/14\/sierra-noble-at-the-living-room-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Noble at The Living Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sierra Noble<\/a> played The Living Room<\/a> last night. Eight days earlier we we saw Sierra at Rockwood (covered here<\/a>). If you told me that we would see an identical performance we would have attended, happily. Just as happily, that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

\"SierraNoble\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sierra had a different setup (no drummer, one less guitarist and a very special female vocalist). The sound system at The Living Room is nearly always great.<\/p>\n

Without a drummer and the extra guitar, even though there was a large overlap in the set lists, the shows had an extremely different feel to them (each equally gorgeous). It\u2019s also interesting how changing the order of the songs ends up producing a different feel\/flow to a set, even if the band was identical.<\/p>\n

Sierra played the first few songs on acoustic guitar, then played both fiddle and guitar for the remainder of the set. Her voice was fantastic (as it always is), if a bit smokier than usual (her vocals so remind me of Alison Krauss<\/a>, having nothing to do with the fact that both are fiddlers).<\/p>\n

\"SierraNobleGuitar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I knew that Sierra co-wrote Human After All with Michael Logen<\/a> from the first time she played it, but I thought that was the only song they worked on together. Last night she said that they\u2019ve written three. One of the others is Happy Here, which she also played last week, but I might have missed her saying who she co-wrote it with then. They\u2019re clearly a great team.<\/p>\n

Sierra closed the show with the same fiddle tune, Dabe, that she closed the Rockwood show with. But, it was quite different (both were awesome) without the drum. More importantly, Sierra took really long solos and stretched the song out to show off her fiddle skills.<\/p>\n

\"SierraNobleFiddle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few minutes into the tune a few people started clapping along. In seconds, that turned into nearly everyone clapping. They clapped the beat (replacing the drum) throughout the very long<\/strong> song. I was mightily impressed by their timing and stamina, but all that did was make Sierra\u2019s fiddle play all the more spectacular (it\u2019s like the crowd\u2019s clapping was rocket fuel for her).<\/p>\n

I mentioned to Sierra after the show that there must be something in the water in Winnipeg which gives fiddlers extra special powers. Two of my other favorite fiddlers hail from there, Tania Elizabeth (of The Duhks<\/a>) and Jeremy Penner (of The Wailin\u2019 Jennys<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only been 15 hours, and we saw two other incredible sets after Sierra\u2019s show, but I\u2019m already anticipating seeing her again. We bought a physical copy of her EP last night so we could get it signed. We already own a digital download (purchased on Amazon) and love it!<\/p>\n

I mentioned to another musician friend that he should come to the show. If he hadn\u2019t tweeted publicly, I wouldn\u2019t be outing him here:<\/p>\n

BergerAlex<\/a> Alex Berger<\/p>\n

Just saw @SierraNoble<\/a> for the 1st time. Blown away. ow.ly\/i\/j8m7<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nothing more needs to be said.<\/p>\n

Except, of course, about the talented people who supported Sierra making the show all the more special. Left-to-right on the stage:<\/p>\n

Chris Anderson<\/a> on upright bass and vocals. Chris\u2019 upright bass filled in the bottom so well that the drums really weren\u2019t missed (even though the drums were a very special part of last week\u2019s set). In addition to singing background vocals on a few numbers, Chris was the primary harmonizer on Human After All.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisAnderson\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris didn\u2019t take any verses by himself (like Martin Rivas<\/a> did last week), but he sang on every chorus and on the bridge and nailed it. Great job, Sierra and Chris sounded terrific together.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisAndersonSierraNoble\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Greg Mayo<\/a> on electric and acoustic guitars and vocals. I mentioned this in last week\u2019s writeup, supporting Sierra brings out an entirely different performance from Greg (from his typical headlining guitar style). In a word, his play was fantastic<\/strong>, without ever stepping on Sierra even for a second.<\/p>\n

\"GregMayo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Greg also provided the primary harmony on most of the numbers. Absolutely wonderful. Greg\u2019s string of never disappointing me continues. He\u2019s the Cal Ripken Jr. of musicians (at least for me). \"Smile\"<\/p>\n

Rebecca Haviland<\/a> was a very special guest vocalist, singing harmony on roughly 40% of the numbers. If you\u2019ve read this space, you know what I think of Rebecca\u2019s voice. Having it blend with Sierra\u2019s, aaaaaaaaah.<\/p>\n

\"RebeccaHaviland\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During one number, all four sang together, beautiful is an understatement.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisAndersonSierraNobleGregMayoRebeccaHaviland\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the set list:<\/p>\n

\"SetList\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sierra is next appearing this Monday night (Oct 17th) at City Winery<\/a> as part of a singer\/songwriter circle (along with quite a number of other amazing singer\/songwriters!). Unfortunately, we\u2019ll be missing that for another pair of great singer\/songwriters. CMJ week is hell when trying to choose who to see.<\/p>\n

The week after, she\u2019s at The Bitter End<\/a> on Tuesday, Oct 25th, at 9pm. We\u2019ll be there. I give you permission to go see her at City Winery, but I insist you come to The Bitter End either way. \"Winking<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sierra Noble played The Living Room last night. Eight days earlier we we saw Sierra at Rockwood (covered here). If you told me that we would see an identical performance we would have attended, happily. Just as happily, that wasn\u2019t the case. Sierra had a different setup (no drummer, one less guitarist and a very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[602,715,1367,818,827,361],"class_list":["post-9131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-2","tag-chris-anderson","tag-greg-mayo","tag-music","tag-rebecca-haviland","tag-sierra-noble","tag-the-living-room"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9134,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9131\/revisions\/9134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}