Solo at the Freight & Salvage photos and review
fierce
rear view
Slipping between saucy and serious, beautiful and burlesque, raucous and rhapsodic, Caren Armstrong held us firmly but tenderly last night at the Freight and Salvage! I had heard her perform only once before so was fully prepared for joy, but did not anticipate the sublime! Dressed in a black velvet dress with gold sequins adorning her derriere, she hustled and bustled her way around the stage with the delicacy and determination of a chanteuse determined to give is Everything...And Everything is what we got, from her spectacular and passionate guitar playing to her pithy, pulsating and down home lyrics (most of the songs written by her) . Caren left no stone unturned as she belted out the sardonic "Enlightenment Blues" then went deep inside of her own pain as she crooned, quite hauntingly, "Leaving Lincoln County", a vignette about the death of a lover, a dream and perhaps even a small demise of her own soul?
The large crowd was riveted to each and every note Caren played and sang...It was clear she was in the fine company of friends and she encouraged participation from all of us! Requests were shouted out and Caren would smile, make some soft arcane comment then hold her guitar snugly, over that black velvet dress, and oblige each one. She was effervescent, complex, moody, quixotic, enthusiastic and just down-right REAL! Not so easy to find an earthy, sinewy, sophisticated, never subdued, sassy singer these days I muse, but last night at the Freight, she was OURS for the taking!
Teacher, author, editor and host
with john haley walker
my new papoose