Jesse Marchant @ DC9, Washington DC - Dec 17 2015.
It was a year ago I first experienced the excellent live show from Montreal's Jesse Marchant and his band. I predicted bigger and better things for him when others would get around to discovering him.... I am still waiting.
The good news is that the moderate audience is rapt, attentive and fully appreciative of the qualities in the songs and the presentation. NPR is here, I am here, and there are a lot of people that have figured it out, too.
Everything I hear tonight makes me want to just add a few exclamation points to my previous rave review. I try to pin him down to Jackson Browne trying to be Tim Buckley or John Martyn, although mostly he reminds me of an obscurity called Beau the way he can take a good folk song and ratchet it up to full rock.
He has the points in between covered and it simply boils down to the warmth and accessibility of his songs as well as his personal vision. The songs are quite enveloping and a set of about 70 minutes worth of his songs is barely enough or perhaps just right. Shows are slowing down as the holidays approach and this was a perfect one to take in as it will stay with me for some time.
Photo Credits:
(1) Jesse Marchant (unknown/website).
