Recap: Joanna Newsom at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue

Joanna Newsom is one of the most polarizing artists in contemporary music, drawing favorable comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Björk from some while causing less patient listeners to clap their ears shut at the first sound of her wavering soprano. Newsom is a demanding songwriter, topping rich, layered arrangements that often reach lengths in the double digits with unapologetically esoteric lyrics—delivered in a voice that, admittedly, tends to take a few tracks to get used to. But she is also an absolute virtuoso, a gifted harpist with the uncanny ability to deliver sincere and powerful vocal performances while plucking away at one of the world’s most taxing instruments. Newsom’s talents were in plain sight from the moment she took the stage last night for the first of two sold out shows at D.C.’s Sixth And I Historic Synagogue.

The mere set-up for the performance was telling of Newsom’s idiosyncratic musical approach. Midway through the almost hour-long break between openers The Moore Brothers and her set, Newsom casually meandered onstage to make last-minute tuning adjustments to her harp. (It’s something you don’t see very often in a rock show; but it would honestly be more shocking to find a roadie capable of tinkering with such an intricate instrument.) When Newsom returned to the stage shortly after to start her set, she was forced to navigate a veritable treasure heap of instruments scattered across the stage—grand piano, drum kit, trombone, bassoon, violins, electric guitar, banjo, whiskey bottles, jaw harp, Bulgarian tambura—before eventually arriving at her majestic centerpiece.

Without a proper greeting, Newsom immediately broke out into the opening harp lines of “’81,” a short yet gorgeously melodic song about a garden party in Eden off of her recently-released three-disc epic, Have One On Me. For those seeing her perform for the first time, the song was a perfect introduction to Newsom’s style, showcasing the remarkable concentration required for each pluck of the harp (which makes the purity and consistency of her vocals even more impressive). Newsom’s five-person accompaniment—including the mastermind behind most of the arrangements in her latest album, Ryan Francesconi—joined her onstage for “In California,” a heartfelt love song that elucidates many of the recent critical comparisons to Mitchell’s Blue.

After evoking audible cheers with the hypnotic finger-picking of “The Book Of Right-On,” Newsom moved to the piano and revisited her recent work with “Easy,” the orchestral opener off Have One On Me. She would stay behind the piano for the next few songs, a stretch that included some of the poppiest tracks in her catalogue to date, notably “Soft As Chalk” and “Good Intentions Paving Company.” Newsom returned to her harp for Have One On Me’s 11-minute title track, in which crawling harp lines and clicking percussion accents tickled the nape like the daddy long-legs referenced in its lyrics.

After “You And Me, Bess,” Newsom closed her set with the 12-minute masterpiece off of 2006’s Ys, “Emily.” The piece was eloquently symphonic, arching from nuanced string pizzicatos to swirling choruses backed by thumping percussion. After an uproarious standing ovation, Newsom and her crew returned to the stage for a single-song encore, a soulful rendition of “Baby Birch’ accompanied by distorted riffs from Francesconi’s electric guitar. When the house lights finally went up, there was an unmistakable radiance in the audience, as if those in attendance fully comprehended the rare musical talent to which they were just treated for 90 minutes.

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