Show Reviews

 

BAILEY JAMES

Tuesday January 3, 2023

@ Scoreboard Bar & Grill in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

Bailey James has been pushing against the surface for the past few years, keeping all industry eyes firmly locked on her calculated moves as a songwriter and artist while she continued honing her craft with high profile performances; each which shined a bright spotlight on her incredibly gifted voice and unique vibey style that flows seamlessly between modern country, 90’s alternative rock, and blitzes of jazz fusion and blues undertones.

2022 will stand tall as a year of positive movement that saw the hype bubbling over the surface for the young, now 20-year-old starlet as the media buzz surrounding her became deafening and she boldly stepped into her next chapter.

Running off the immense success of her 2021 single “Finally Free,” she’d skewer away from her normal pacing to hit us with the unexpectedly fresh, rock kissed edges of the “The Crow” and “The Spell,” but would then release highly acclaimed songs “Don’t Need Ya” and “Better Angels” in the late part of the year; the latter which earned her a finalist spot in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

James kicked off her 2023 with an acoustic performance at Scoreboard Bar & Grill as part of the lineup for the popular weekly show Nashville’s Most Wanted!

While full band shows, such as her Whiskey Jam performance last year, do give the audience an extreme amount of energy that sees the artist feeding off the crowd and vice versa, the subtlety of an acoustic gig allows the artist to truly showcase their craft in its purest form and simply impress with their vocal abilities and songwriting prowess.

James instantly displayed her outstanding vocals through the hot opening of “Leave Me the Right Way,” as the song then progressively built melodically which would allow her to slide her voice through its impressive range as she grabbed the microphone from the stand to lean deeper into her pure power, radiating through the venue and captivating the crowd.

“I’m gonna be playing a little bit of everything across different genres tonight,” explained James as she smiled and unapologetically said, “as if I didn’t make that clear with my Tupac t-shirt,” before dripping into Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” allowing not only her traditional country influences to be worn prominently on her sleeve, but to also bleed into her natural, blues heavy tones and set the aura for the rest of her performance.

“I released this song last spring and it’s a little bit of a rock song, but the video did get added to CMT,” shared Bailey as the crowd clapped for the achievement. “I wrote this one with Nolan Neal, who was on The Voice and America’s Got Talent. He passed away this year due to an overdose, and we always bonded over our mental health issues. We wrote this song about that,” she introduced as the opening notes of “The Crow” began to strum.

During the song, which clearly holds deep meaning to James, she rocked side to side in rhythm with it, bouncing on her stool at center stage as she pumped into the 90’s alternative inspired chorus while flawlessly lifting her voice to its highest register.

Engaging the crowd by asking them if they’d rather hear Amy Winehouse or Chris Stapleton, James delivered a stellar version of “Tennessee Whiskey” per their response, before injecting her set with a new original “I Can’t Stop Myself From Loving You,” a gut wrenching, heart tugging, can’t get over you no matter how hard I try type of song that is perfectly aimed for today’s Top 40 within its overall sound and feel.

“Alright…let’s do that Amy one,” Bailey said to her guitarist, Randy Barnette, before turning to the crowd with a sly grin. “You thought you missed out on hearing this one, but you didn’t! The very dysfunctional, female singer-songwriter’s really spoke to me when I was an angry teen and had such an influence on me,” she told while namechecking Winehouse, Fiona Apple, and Courtney Love before playing “You Know I’m No Good,” which gave James the opportunity to introduce the crowd to another of her many layers when she dug into a snarly, gravel tone within her vocals to embed the lyrics with the proper grit to uphold its dark moodiness.

“I released this song….WOW! about 2 years ago now,” James reflected. “I wrote it when I was 16, and I remember walking into that writing a complete mess. I broke up with the one who I thought was the one,” she recollected as the jazz infused bluesy tilt of “Finally Free” quieted the venue as she bounced her voice along the irresistible melody, building it along the way so that it would raise at all the perfect moments to highlight the punchiness of each line in the chorus.

After a sing along moment during her cover of CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” James then delivered an amazing version of “Don’t Need Ya,” her recent single which she explained to have been inspired by her Pink Floyd/don’t give a S**T what my parents think phase, that while she kept close to the recorded version, also saw her voice move into softer tones through the chorus to really enhance that blacklight filled Pink Floyd influence.

As the R&B flavor of Solomon Burke’s “Cry To Me” allowed James to lean into her more soulful side as she bopped along with the groove, when she dipped back into her catalog for “Swore I Was Over it,” she delivered a softer paced song that perfectly bookended the theme and feel of “I Can’t Stop Myself From Loving You” from earlier in the set as she used a breathiness in her vocal to deliver the cry like tone of the trouble with moving on lyric.

“This is a Lead Belly song that I discovered during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged,” told Bailey as she offered an immaculate version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” adding an eerily haunting flavor to it that took the familiarity of the song and twisted it into something to call her own as she hit the crescendo before digging into her lower register to drive the frantic outro.

Putting an exclamation point on an incredible hour of music, James closed her set with Beth Hart’s “Caught Out in the Rain,” a moody, darker styled song that carries bluesy undertones that perfectly accentuate Bailey James’ overall vibe as she paced her voice through its impressive range one last time to leave the crowd on the edge of their seats and wanting more.

FULL SET LIST

1) Leave Me the Right Way

2) Crazy (Patsy Cline cover)

3) The Crow

4) Tennessee Whiskey (Chris Stapleton/George Jones cover)

5) I Can’t Stop Myself From Loving You

6) You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse cover)

7) Finally Free

8) Have You Ever Seen the Rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)

9) Don’t Need Ya

10) Cry To Me (Solomon Burke cover)

11) Swore I Was Over It

12) Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Lead Belly/Nirvana cover)

13) Caught Out In The Rain (Beth Hart cover)

 

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