1) J-Lo’s birthday! Hear hear for the CONDEMNED House, and beautiful women talking about Palestrina and Tallis. Met the composer of the Gonzales Cantata (remember that one about the Attorney General and the testimonial hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee… and every role done by women in prom dresses?) and her funny stories about living in Harrisburg. Met 3 Mormons (a record for me in one night…); schmoozed with a librarian, a web developer and a QA tech for text link ads (sigh); ate a ridiculously great meal prepared by my awesome hostess; sweated to death in a rather enjoyable sauna. Off to see Arcade Fire and Spoon (and skip rehearsal, righteously) with her tomorrow.

2) Katie Herzig, Larkin Poe, Paul Dempsey. Talk about an amazing show – this was it.

Larkin Poe started off, and boy was I pissed at being a few minutes late. Larkin Poe are the two remaining Lovell sisters, one of whom had run off to get married and retire from a life of touring the country playing beautiful bluegrass music. They’re apparently in the middle of their tour, heading next to Ohio for some more music making. Sister Rebecca is the lead vocals, and is 19. Crazy, her voice projects such a world-wise attitude that I woulda sworn she was the eldest sister. On the dobro is sister Megan, who actually is older. (They’re both hot and young and super talented, so no age-related insults intended.) The dobro is a guitar that’s played flat and picked. It’s really weird but such an awesome instrument. Loved her solo. Rebecca plays mandolin and is apparently somewhat of a mandolin virtuoso. They had a great bass player touring with them as well. After the show, all I could think was that if you didn’t like bluegrass before, you’d make an exception for them. Love their songs, especially My Home – you could see they were having a kickass time playing that, and the thing I love about them best are their improv chops! They were really rocking it on My Home and when it was over, I was sad that their set was done. Both of them were super-friendly after the show, especially little sister Rebecca. She’s probably the more personable of the two, seeing as she came out to watch both Paul and Katie’s sets and took lead whenever people came up to talk. Admittedly, I was wanting to talk to Megan but Rebecca totally stole the scene. If another set hadn’t come up, I might have continued the chat. As a benediction, I wished them “much endurance.” Megan agreed.

Paul Dempsey is an Irish Aussie from New York. How he introduced himself. A little less personable than Katie or the Lovells, but a great musician. Like a bunch of his songs… one tiny tiny beef: in organizing his set, he chose a few too many sad songs in a row. Moodwise, he shoulda threw in Fast Friends or something to break up the sadness. Got his CD but not his autograph. Getting mobbed by middle-aged ladies who wanted him, go for it cougars.

Katie Herzig is great live. She doesn’t have the technical virtuosity of the Lovells, but then again, her songs don’t feature it so there’s no way to show it off. She had a good backup band with her, who were as entertaining as she was. Her cellist (gotta love the cello in a pop band) was smokin’ and also couldn’t keep a straight face the entire show. I laughed once during the show and then she started giggling again (just when she had lost it); it was pretty awesome. If you like her songs, they’re pretty much exactly the same live except for that little extra warble in her voice. Endearing. Also personable, I talked with her for a bit afterwards. She’s on the last legs of the northeast part of her tour, “part 2″ she says, “of 5″. I was like, hmm, so why is it subdivided like that? She said something about having breaks and stuff, so I figure she has enough time off to make that a clean break in parts. Anyways, she very nicely offered to sign the CD that I scooped off the table. Gotta love the audience sizes at World Cafe Live; you can totally get schmooze time and autographs from the singers without asking, and without intruding on their time. The only thing I wonder is if they ever hang around much later for drinks at the bar…

Since I am going to a wedding this afternoon, this seemed the appropriate mix. Hooray for Christopher Rubino and Megan McGowan! Yes, I am a closet romantic. Stole My Heart is on the Amazon Kindle commercial. Sister Hazel actually has some good stuff beyond their most popular late 90s period. Carissa’s Wierd was a Seattle “chamber pop” band, one of the members went on to Band of Horses. They apparently didn’t know how to spell. Good to see Jennifer Knapp coming back with some good stuff. Ima see Katie Herzig live pretty soon, so am looking forward to that. The Lily Allen song has weird grammar but maybe that’s a Brit thing… “get a Chinese” rather than “get Chinese”? I assume she’s talking about Chinese food and not adopting a Chinese baby. The song has a nice cover by some UK kids choir, was listening to that the other day and it was utterly charming… possibly even a little better than the original.

Stole My Heart – Little & Ashley
Dead Hearts – Stars
You’re Not The Only One – Paul Thorn
What Kind Of Living – Sister Hazel
Raining In Me – The Benjy Davis Project
Lions – Samantha Crain
Chinese – Lily Allen
Princess – Lee Dewyze
Die – Carissa’s Wierd
Things I Used to Know – Riley Etheridge Jr.
Blue Sunshine – Blue Giant
Check Your Pocket – The Benjy Davis Project
Dive In – Jennifer Knapp
Wasted Daylight – Stars
Static Waves – Andrew Belle & Katie Herzig
Queen of the Lot – The Spring Standards
Heart To Tell – The Love Language
Smile with Candy Hearts – Clara C