OnMilwaukee.com Review
By: Julie Lawrence - onmilwaukee.com

Joanna Newsom isn't known for her especially enticing interviews. When asked about her creative process, she usually expels extensive, detailed explanations of her composition and song structure, hinting that she draws, lyrically, from her own experiences, but leaving out all the parts of her personal life that led up to composing such intense and complex pieces of music. It's not a light read by any means and her answers would never interest a marginal fan. But then again, Newsom doesn't write songs for the marginal musical fan, either. Lucky for all of us at The Pabst Theater last night, she chose to employ those same straight forward tactics when performing live. Backed by a 29-piece (a marimba player was added at the last minute) orchestra, the petite harpist set forth on an epic journey through "Ys," her acclaimed sophomore album of 2006, song by song. Nary a note was missed during an hour of what felt like flawless presentation -- though she did admit to her mistakes when she made them, however indistinguishable to the audience -- bringing the crowed theater to an awed hush. Our collective stillness was Read More...