songHides in Rain |
(March 2003)
The phenomenal Jess Bryant said she wasn't in her best voice tonight. That may have been true but she still blew the roof off the place with another incredible display of singing. The first song (called "Hide In Rain"?) was an old one of Jess'. The commitment to the performance was 100%, the line 'every day I write my name on my hand/just in case I forget who I am' delivered with pure intensity. Some of the power in the notes she hit on "Patricia's Song" seemed to make the walls rattle (or was that just my brain?). Her rich, resonant vocals and delicate guitar playing were just immense. "The Hand That Rocks The World" used space to great effect and I've never heard such a busy room so quiet listening to this.(May 2003)
Jess Bryant has a voice that you wouldn't only die for, you'd probably kill for too. Eyes closed in concentration, the guitar emitting some at times discordant, yet strangely beautiful notes, Jess produces voluptuously full, rounded vocal sounds which at times I'm not sure are words, but I'm sure as hell it doesn't matter. What does matter is that while listening to her I am transported to another place entirely, a multi-coloured garden of tropical flowers, with no notion of how I got there. When she sings the line "Oh baby you're seeping away from me", it's one of the most poignant, tragic, sad and yet wildly beautiful things I've ever heard. Impossible to categorise, apart from under the "Utter Genius" category.