Harps and Angels

Harps and Angels is the title of the most recent album from Randy Newman. Might the US songwriter and pianist have had Joanna Newsom in mind? Perhaps not, but the American harpist, with her strange, child-like voice, long braids, and fabulous harp-playing, definitely has something angelic about her. With her long, idyllic ballads, bucolic imagery, and cryptic reflections on love, this Californian contemporary of Alela Diane and Devendra Banhart has developed an idiom that is all her own. Amid the plastic pop and exuberant R&B of the Lady Gagas and Rihannas of this world, she is a comforting anachronism. A series of ambitious albums has seen her emerge as one of the most intriguing singer-songwriters of the last ten years. On the symphonic Ys, her second and most successful CD, she teamed up with Van Dyke Parks, Steve Albini, and Jim O’Rourke – an unusual combination, that nonetheless resulted in a true masterpiece. On Have One on Me, her latest album, she excelled herself with a lyrical triptych lasting nearly three hours. Newsom, who is coming on her own to the AB, is only playing two concerts this spring: one at All Tomorrow’s Parties and one in Brussels. Don’t miss this chance to see an angel at work on a harp.

Joanna Newsom
13/3, 20.00, €30/33,
ANCIENNE BELGIQUE, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles,
02-548.24.24, info@abconcerts.be, www.abconcerts.be