Denitia Odigie at All Asia in Cambridge

The article below is re-posted from the Performer Mag Blog. Denitia is a fellow Vanderbilt alumna and was once my coworker at Grins, Nashville's only vegan, vegetarian and kosher cafe. July 5, 2010 Live Review: The Sessions Tour // All Asia // Cambridge, MA June 28, 2010 By: Noelle Janka
The Sessions Tour, a team of four-star singer-songwriters from Austin, came through Cambridge, MA last week as part of a 16-show gig through the South, Northeast and Canada. CJ Vinson, a acoustic country rocker who splits his time between New York and Austin, recruited artists Danny Malone, Aimee Bobruk, Denitia Odigie (and for this show, Waldo Wittenmeyer) to play a tour in the style of Los Angeles' Hotel Cafe. The venue, which also organizes showcase tours, is known for being one of the country's premier music hubs and a place where artists big and small play solo and communally, rehearsed and on the fly. At last week's show at All Asia Bar, each Sessions artist took turns playing two of their own songs before taking the stage all together. They took turns leading, with the others backing them up in a combination of vocals, percussion, guitar and keys. It was like an invite-only hootenanny or campfire sing-a-long, where only the most seasoned players and performers could join in. That's not to say they were pretentious, because they were anything but, laughing, making fun of each other and joking with the crowd the whole night. Of the five, Malone and Odigie stood out in particular. The former has a charming southern accent and a whiney but endearing voice reminiscent of The Mountain Goats or Built to Spill. His lyrics are odd: "My grandmother's dead and she's down in the basement. I'm keepin' her safe." But the delivery is cheerful, making the songs beautiful and the performance captivating. As soon as Odigie opened her mouth, the crowd went silent. She's a smiley, unassuming little lady who looks a lot like Lauryn Hill and laughs like a scheming five year old. But, when she's on stage, you can almost feel her squeezing your heart with her bare hands. Her voice is raw and haunting, and soars unpredictably to unimaginable heights. Between that and her slow electric guitar, Denitia's heart-wrenching love songs are of a dark, soulful ilk that would make Jeff Buckley fans weep. Odigie relocated in Austin after several solid years in Nashville. She played 5 shows at South by Southwest in March and just released her new album Vitality on Weston Boys Records.