Rae lays out her blues for a receptive audience
Rae lays out her blues for a receptive audience
May 3, 2010
By James Reed
The Boston Globe
Corinne Bailey Rae spent a good part of Friday night at the House of Blues singing with her eyes closed. Usually it was on the quiet, more introspective songs, of which there are many on the British soul singer’s latest album, “The Sea.’’
Yet it was easy to see what Rae must have been feeling. “The Sea’’ comes with a sad backstory — it was partly inspired by her husband’s death from an accidental overdose in 2008 — and no matter what the songs were truly about, that tragedy cast a pall over much of her moving performance.
Early on, when Rae played an acoustic guitar with a full band ably backing her, she kept repeating the line “Are you here?’’ her soft voice fraught with yearning. It was so powerful that it almost felt gauche to applaud her heartache.
Whereas her 2006 self-titled debut tried to make sense of love, “The Sea’’ deals with losing it. That inherently made for a compelling show where much of the focus was on Rae’s voice, a small but elegant instrument with echoes of Erykah Badu’s timber.
Occasionally, though, she and her band locked into a feisty, rock-oriented groove (“The Blackest Lily’’). Over a heavy crash of drums and organ, Rae approached something of a howl on “Diving for Hearts.’’
Evoking Bill Withers, Rae often slipped in and out of various genres, from acoustic soul to soft rock to smooth R&B. And the sun poked through the clouds on occasion, too. “Put Your Records On,’’ was a reminder of what a breezy little summer jam it was a few years ago. Afterward, she paused a moment to soak up the applause and applauded the audience right back.
Heartened by the adulation, Rae promised one more encore, what had to have been the most sensual cover of Doris Day’s “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)’’ ever performed. Guitarist John McCallum, who had spent much of the evening adding subtle harmonies, suddenly loosed his inner blue-eyed soul singer, gliding beautifully into wailing notes.
Rae was feeling out the song just as deeply. With eyes closed once again, she kept one hand on the microphone and the other stretched skyward, as if salvation were finally hers.
