Review: ALICIA WITT The Coolest Of Cool at Joe's Pub

June 9th was a hot summer night in NYC but inside of Joe’s Pub it was chill, laid back, and ever-so-cool as Alicia Witt made a welcome return to the club that she first played in 2008, the club that she was playing for the first time in twelve years.  And what a welcome return this was.  In this room filled with devoted fans and friends with whom she, clearly, has warm relationships, the singer-songwriter brought the best of herself and her incomparable compositions.  There was no fanfare, no pomp, no announcer on the god mic requesting that everyone “Welcome to the stage Alicia Witt.”   There was just a petite young woman in a little black dress with her tousle of red hair falling about her face, slipping past the masking black to step up onto the stage, a set list in one hand and a coffee mug in the other: pure, simple, unadorned Alicia Witt, slightly grinning and shyly glancing to see who was in the house.  She announced herself.  She sat herself down.  She mentioned aforementioned set list, qualifying that there was no real running order, just a list of songs.  And Alicia Witt and her family of friends were off to the races, only no races like we’ve ever been to… for it was one of most comfortable and casual concerts this writer has ever attended, a true blue living room concert that made you feel like, were she not engaged in the act of entertaining her guests, Alicia Witt might be pouring the wine or passing the platter of amuse bouches.  The amusement, though, came not in the food served, but in every word spoken or sung (not to mention belly laughs and bright eyes) from this entertainer oh-so-rare.

Singer-songwriters are not rare, they are not unusual, they are quite plentiful.  But singer-songwriters the like of Alicia Witt do, in fact, not come along every day.  They used to.  There was a time when women in an era of music known as Laurel Canyon scripted and composed songs that leaned heavily into storytelling.  Let’s embolden that: STORYTELLING.  There is no slight intended to the many women who write and perform songs today, only a compliment intended toward Alicia Witt, who played a concert lasting over ninety minutes of songs, each and every one a story, each and every one with a story of how it came to be.  In some instances, Ms. Witt let the song do the talking, her skilled fingers flying over the keys and her rangey, honeyed voice, clear as crystal, pretty as a stained glass window, carrying the audience into the ether, as an audible cloud, heaven bound.  Patrons around the room could be seen to clasp hands over hearts and heard, sighing with beatific bliss.  This is a voice to treasure, wrapped around visceral visuals, and memorable melodies.  

Of course, then came the moments when Alicia Witt offered up some backstory to the musical monologues: perhaps a personal tale of sobriety informed the highly relatable “One Last Drink,” in which Witt ponders how one invites a date in for a nightcap when one no longer drinks.  Maybe a mistaken moment of swooning at the end of a date inspired the dynamic “Down She Goes,” a number that Alicia asked of the audience “When do you want the backstory, before or after?”  A gauntlet was thrown down when a patron called out, “At the bridge!”  Challenge accepted, Alicia Witt played the song, paused at the bridge, told the story, and finished the song.  It was one of those live theater moments that audiences don’t forget.   Whether offering these private insights or guiding her guests through her fifteen-song set with the mere poetry of the lyrics and a voice akin to holding a beating heart in your own two hands,  Alicia Witt kept captive her adoring audience, an audience made up of people who regularly called out to her from their seats, engaging the Hallmark Christmas movie queen in full-on conversation with enormous smiles and inside jokes.  She had them in the palm of her hand, and they were begging her not to let go.  

Among the musical highlights of the evening were Witt’s Billboard charting song “Chasing Shadows,” the still-stunning “Me or New York,” thirteen years after its release, radio-ready act opener “I Hope It’s Me,” from her latest album THE CONDUIT, and the evening winner, the hypnotic, emotion-inducing “More,” which this writer texted, emailed, and messaged to every friend, the day after the concert.  In honor of Pride, Witt performed "Last Surviving Son," a spectacular song written with Crystal Bowersox that cannot be described, only experienced:

That, of course, does not take into account the epic final number of the evening, performed with Witt’s cyber-lebrity canine Ernest sitting at her feet - the backstage pup called out to his human halfway through the show, and when Alicia asked the crowd if they wanted to see Ernest, the shouts of approval sent the film and TV actress offstage to bring the pooch into the light.  There, happy at his Mama’s feet, Ernest enjoyed the last half of the show, including said epic mashup, created on the spot after Ms. Witt asked the crowd what they wanted to hear that she had not yet played.  What followed was four of her compositions melded into one, complete with key changes as seamless as though the medley had been previously charted, ending with the uber-popular “I’m Not Ready For Christmas” (the ONLY Christmas song, in this writer’s opinion).  Indeed, this is a demonstration of two important factors of live music performing: one, this singer-songwriter operates with no charts.  As all the songs performed are Alicia Witt originals, all the Lady needs are the keys, her voice, and her memory.  Two:  this singer-songwriter, this star, has (and nurtures) an amazing camaraderie with her fans.  In fact, fans doesn’t seem like the right word.  These are fans, they are followers, they are friends, they are family.  Witt’s social media presence (and online concerts) provides opportunities for connection that fuels her performance.  Before playing a city, Alicia asks online, “What do you want to hear?” so that she can give the people what they desire.  She livestreams her shows (a few years ago at Rockwood Music Hall, she started the show by propping her phone up on the piano for a Facebook live event) so that people everywhere can enjoy the music, the storytelling.  She remembers who in the audience she met in which city at what venue and then she socializes with them from the stage with genuine affection and appreciation.  Alicia Witt has used the internet and social media to her advantage to make certain that the people who enjoy and respect her artistry understand what that means to her: a LOT.  That’s important.  People need to know that you value them, and Alicia Witt does not take that for granted, and then she gives them what they want: her music, her artistry, her attention.

Alicia Witt told her Joe’s Pub crowd that at the end of a long hard day, she uses music to relax.  Today’s world is filled with long hard days, and the June 9th crowd at Joe’s Pub had a perfect, a carefree, a chill way of relaxing, and it was all thanks to the coolest of them all: Alicia Witt.

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Alicia Witt has three albums - 2012's Live At Rockwood, 2015's Revisionary History, 2021's The Conduit

three EPS - 2009's Alicia Witt, 2018's 15,000 Days, 2023's Witness

and a slew of singles.

Find Alicia on Spotify HERE.

THIS is the Alicia Witt website, HERE is the Alicia Witt Facebook page, find Alicia Witt on Instagram HERE and on YouTube HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

 

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