Live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music - February 1st, 2008. This is the most beautiful live version of this song I've heard. I don't own this recording, nor the picture used on the video.
She's such a beautiful, talented, intelligent person. It's a blessing and a privilege to be alive at the same time as her. I can not express how much I love this woman and her music.
I had the privilege to view this entire performance through the NYPL database. If you're planning a trip to New York, I highly suggest emailing her publisher to get viewing permissions and visit. Life changing.
Time is such a strange thing…my son was born in 2008. He is in high school now. How could this performance possibly have been such a long time ago? This still sounds as impactful as the first day I heard it. Genius.
Thank you thank you thank you for this!! This entire song is an 11/10 achievement, but holy shit the "Be A Woman" section gives me goosebumps every time I hear it
Oh man. I wish there was an officially sanctioned recording of this. Never thought the song could get even better, but it does. The harp not being drowned out by the orchestra combined with the slightly restrained vocals (gotta admit that I prefer the clearer singing style joanna adopted after her vocal cord surgery, as heard here) and more audible percussion make this even more hauntingly beautiful and more powerful than the studio recording.
+NIMRODakaNIMROD Hey, yeah, this was a ver special performance… Actually this recording dates from before she had any problem on her vocal chords… She had already changed her singing style towards the way she sings today, which makes me sad, because her voice here shows such power and delicacy at the same time, that I wish she still had this voice. To me, this was her very best moment in terms of singing. But anyway, can you imagine how it felt and sounded there, in person? Sublime. The people who attended this were very lucky.
+Lucas Oh, you had even put the date in the description. Completely missed that, I'm sorry! Gotta say that I absolutely love her present style though. She seems to have settled for a sort of middle ground, right between the quirky exuberance of her early recordings and the more laid-back and refined singing style she employed on "Have One on Me". Anyway - so this is your recording? - Thanks for sharing these beautiful nineteen minutes! As I said: I wish this could be an "official" recording since this would in fact quickly become the "definite" version of this song (which is one of my all-time favourites anyway - a breathless tour de force through emotions and musical styles), I guess.
Newsom never had surgery on her vocal cords. She discovered she had developed nodules during the recording of Have One On Me and underwent three months of complete vocal rest. Her recovery involved a vocal lesson and a routine of vocal warm-ups.
