Jess Williamson at The Lexington

Jess Williamson

Lilo

Clara Mann

The Lexington, 16 January 2024

I've been aching to see Jess Williamson live for years now. I discovered her too late to see her last London gig back in 2018, at The Lexington too apparently, and then Covid hit and she couldn't tour her stunning previous album Sorceress. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to grab a ticket to this intimate one-woman show at The Lexington: my first gig of 2024 too!

Arriving on stage looking like a Prairie goddess in a long frilled dress, maybe it's absolutely un-PC to say these days but I'm struck by just how beautiful Williamson is in the flesh and she seems so sweet and utterly charming. While setting up her equipment before her set she takes a video of the audience and appears as thrilled that we are all there as we are to see her. She's very aware at just how long it's been since she has last toured these shores, as she opens her set with the title track of the record she never got to tour here, Sorceress, and treats us to a few from the record, playing just her telecaster guitar and letting her rich and affecting voice to cast its spell over us all on songs like Ponies In Town and Wind On Tin.

Williamson's most recent record, Time Ain't Accidental, is without a doubt one of the best albums from last year and certainly a favourite of mine. It sees her moving from the more cosmic folk leanings of previous records and embracing her country side that she revealed to us on the Plains album: her brilliant collaboration with Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.  Not surprisingly most of the set is devoted to the new record, beginning with the wistful Tobacco Two-Step, which she reveals to be probably her favorite song from the album. She sings it with such feeling, it's easy to believe she means every sad word. 

Because Williamson's voice is so beautifully warm and emotional, it's actually rather wonderful to hear the songs with just her guitar accompanying it, showing just how strong the new tracks are, particularly (my favourite) Roads and standout songs such as Hunter and Chasing Spirits. Williamson is well able to command the stage alone and charmingly tell stories and chat between tunes but at one point she asks if there are any smaller members of the audience struggling to see who want to join her sitting behind her on the stage. "It's lonely up here!" she jokingly pleaded. No one takes her up on the offer due to what she calls "British reserve," which to be fair is probably correct, but I may well have taken her up on the offer if I hadn't such a perfect spot already. It really was something special to experience Williamson so close and I had such a good view (as you may be able to tell from the photos!).

Near the end Williamson tells us that she wrote most of the new album during lockdown and used an app on her phone to create backings for the new songs, so in that spirit she plugs in her iPhone and shimmers and sways to the rhythmic backing tracks for the songs, God In Everything, Topanga Two Step and the fantastic title track, Time Ain't Accidental. She promises that she is trying to come back in the summer with a full band and this is certainly a lovely glimpse of just how thrilling that would be.

Her band with Katie Crutchfield, Plains, toured the States but not here, so it's wonderful to hear a couple of song from it, namely the standout Abilene and the title track, I Walked With You A Ways, which beautifully ends the show on a quiet and tender note, leaving us wanting more with no encore (I love the absolute lack of pretention of no encore shows!).

At the end it seems so funny that she opened the show singing "I'm no sorceress" because she certainly cast a spell on us all tonight, for a show that was pure magic.

Also on the bill were two British acts, firstly a singer songwriter called Clara Mann, who bravely took to the stage with just her acoustic guitar. Mann sounded as delicate as she looked and reminded me of the gentle, thoughtful strummings of artists like Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs. Apparently her background is in classical music, which certainly was evident in the atmospheric nature of the songs. She seemed very sweet too.

Then there was a duo called Lilo, made up of two young women and this time accompanied by a pedal steel player. I found them very dull (at one point they said that, while the last song was slow and sad-sounding, the lyrics were actually happy, and the next song was really a sad song but ironically was upbeat sounding, but to me they sounded identical). To me it all sounded very middle-class and without much depth, but what do I know, there were some people there just for them who were really digging their set and one guy behind me kept exclaiming in a posh voice "Oh I love this one!" and singing along, so maybe I am missing out. I don't think their music is for me though and I'm sure they don't care either way. I did love the pedal steel, so good job Mr Pedal Steel!