Walking into the Jalopy last Saturday, November 24th, felt like walking into the world portrayed by the Coen Brothers in 2012’s Inside Llewyn Davis: dimly lit, with red and white tea lights hanging from the ceiling, exposed brick walls, a bright, red curtain framing the stage. Most attendees contributed to the coziness of the décor with thickly knit sweaters and flannels. The theater provided an ideal ambiance for burgeoning folk-country musician Kenniston’s debut album OUT OF THE RUNNING, available for purchase on Bandcamp.
Kenniston is a Brooklyn based band, the brainchild of Catherine Provenzano, the vocalist and songwriter. Her previous EP, WAKE, was released in 2016; her newest work showcases a broad variety of instruments and more complex production work, thanks to the efforts of Jason Borisoff, who also accompanied her vocals on electric guitar throughout the night.
Provenzano’s bandmates hopped on and off the stage throughout the night, as did Abby Hollander, who opened for them. This quaint musical chairs act underlined the album’s central star, which is Kenniston and her poetic lyrics. When she set her guitar aside to sing “I’ve got everything to lose and you’ve got everything,” Provenzano, dressed in a black-lace mock neck jumpsuit, looked like a modern Victorian matriarch. The earnestness and sincerity of her voice are reminiscent of Brandi Carlile, and Provenzano keeps the music in the background sparse to highlight it.
Nowhere is Provenzano’s poetic lyricism more apparent than in her rendition of “Where You Are.” A song without a chorus, her lyrics navigate the listener expertly through the seasons of someone looking back on a relationship, not entirely regretfully. “Here it’s barely spring” she sings sweetly in the beginning, “But I wonder how things look where you are.” It’s quite specific feeling, but Provenzano nails it, her voice capturing the mature nostalgia of someone moving on from a former love. “You know I don’t miss everything, but that I miss,” she croons about kissing in sundresses.
Despite the minor inconvenience of having the bandmates jump on and off the stage (especially the man wielding the stand-up bass), the show offered the audience an entertaining mix of pop-y folk and more traditional, somber, folk ballads. The band’s opening number, blending acoustic and electric guitar, as well as drums, bass, and keyboards, was like watching an intimate jam session among friends, all bobbing to the music, with Provenzano at one point even laughing into the microphone.
Kenniston’s performance on Saturday did a great job promoting OUT OF THE RUNNING; it’s just too bad that such shows can’t be a more regular weekend occurrence. Maybe then the folk music scene romanticized in Inside Llewyn Davis wouldn’t be solely a thing of the past.
Kenniston’s music is available for streaming or purchase on Bandcamp; their previous EP, WAKE, is available on Spotify or iTunes. Updates about the band’s upcoming shows and events can be found on their Facebook page.
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