Jessica Pratt is a Folkie thrush with a beguiling voice. Fey and fascinating. A different kind of song witch.
Pratt is currently based in Los Angeles, where the overriding anthem on the street is I Fought the Law (And the Law Won).
She was raised (way up) north of that city in Redding. Mother was most involved in her rearing. There were strong conservative Christian values and esoterica like numerology and astrology. Solid hippie credentials so far.
But mother was a music obsessive and pushed her along with Tim Buckley, X, and Gun Club.
We can fuck forever, but you’ll never get my soul (Sex Beat). Opening a lot of channels and chakras there.
Has been described as Freak Folk, a term she tends to prickle at. First time I have come across it.
Origins are with Vashti Bunyan as the Godmother of the style. Psychedelic Folk with lots of rural, pastoral, fey elements. Its really hippie Folk music.
Recalls the Incredible String Band and eccentrics like Kaleidoscope (the one David Linley was in) so there is a beloved nature to the sound.
Pratt has been carving her own sonic palette out of this broad canvas.
She learnt to play a Stratocaster from an older brother’s hand-me-down. Got down pat all the hooks and riffs of T-Rex’s Electric Warrior.
Marc Bolan was an original Freak Folk guy with Tyrannosaurus Rex, before becoming the angel headed hipster.
It all goes ‘round and ‘round in the circle game.
Names like Joni (Mitchell) and Joanie (Baez) have been thrown around, which are plainly ludicrous, and she has commented as such.
Her witch style is closer to Stevie Nicks. A more affected manner which I found captivating listening to her latest album Here in The Pitch (2024).
The songs on this one were a product of the Lockdown madness which disproportionately affected California it its malevolent political stupidity. The current dancin’ in the streets is just more of the same.
Pratt has reacted to this by wanting to escape back into the promise of Pet Sounds. Atmospheric production like a snow globe in her words.
When you read this, you will know the musical genius that was Brian Wilson has just passed away.
Opens with World on a String. The vocals tend to boom and echo and consequently becomes a little muddy and muffled.
Not the band, with drums, keyboards, electric guitar and bass. The keys lay down a great string section. Maybe turn down the reverb on the voice. We adjust to it over the course of the set.
Get Your Head Out nicks quite a bit from the bossa nova rhythm and hooks of Dionne Warwick’s Do You Know the Way to San Jose.
The soft Latino Bossa beat is present on Better Hate and By Hook or By Crook. The drums clop along. The guitarist picks up a saxophone and there’s a loping bass line.
All three off Here in The Pitch.
Tiny Ruins played the support act with tidy little Folk set. This is Hollie Fulbrook’s vehicle for her songwriting.
The band is often a trio but tonight she is with bassist extraordinare Cass Basil.
Wonderful the tone she can get which sounds like a stand-up acoustic bass. It is electric and sometimes she can conjure up a cello sound. She may play a few songs on a five-string.
The Crab/ Waterbaby is where they both combine in tonal shifts (Fullbrook is playing an acoustic guitar) to a sparkling finish.
Jessica Pratt pushes a lot of her songs into bright sunny Pop territory. One of the highlights tonight is Back,Baby. That is the sound, but the lyrics are of regret and lost relationships.
Things like that you can never take back/ If There was a time when you loved me. Pain and regret transformed into joy. It must be the Blues.
My fave on the new album Life Is. Celestial melange of Phil Spector and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Brian Wilson would cry.
Nailed it tonight close to the end. It was a short set from Jessica Pratt, but it was perfectly formed.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Jessica Pratt
Tiny Ruins
