Easy Listening

I was back at the Burdock on Friday for an early show. It was a full house, mostly friends and family, for Donna Linklater and Kin Collective. Linklater opened the evening with a set of theatrical pop (Slash and Burn, Tough Guy, I Hear Voices). She sometimes injected a bit of operatic soprano into her singing. There was some feedback on her ukulele that she struggled to control.

Kin Collective is mostly a song-writing group and usually release their music and videos online. Tonight's live performance was a rare outing. They played adult contemporary songs including numbers from their EP (Broken, Time To Start Trying) as well as covers from Carol King and Civil Wars.

Given my recent experiences with fresh indie gems from Moscow Apartment and experimental but engaging music from CWC, I just couldn't get into tonight's music. Linklater should hook up with those women composers to explore her weird side. As for the writers of the Collective, they might need to reconnect with their younger selves and realize that as people get older, they sometimes use more words than necessary, while actually saying less.