Diane Birch At The House Of Blues - Cleveland, OH

I got an email last week asking me to attend a concert at the House Of Blues Sunday night. There were to be two tickets at will call if I would agree to go hear Diane Birch and blog about it. It said "Here is her link." I went and listened. She sounded pretty good. Online. In a recording. Who knows, maybe I could sound good online in a recording. Okay, maybe not. Most people could, though. You know what I mean. You know how live music can be so different? I went prepared for pretty much anything.

After a bit of confusion at will call which resulted in us leaving and going around the corner to eat, I got a call from Ellis, the tour manager. He got everything taken care of and we were back around the corner again for our tickets. If nothing else, Diane Birch had a tour manager who was well chosen to deal with the public. He was friendly and efficient. We would totally have dinner with him.

We went into the concert as the opening band was finishing their last song. After walking around for a couple of minutes to get a feel for the place we saw Diane and her band come on stage. What a beautiful girl. She certainly does not have to sing for her supper. Sing she does, however, with the voice of an angel. If her vocals alone were not impressive enough she also plays the piano for all of her songs. Sunday night it was done on a keyboard. She also writes her own songs.

She's got a soulful young voice. After hearing her and feeling an immediate connection I was not surprised at all to see some of her influences are the same as some of mine: Church Hymns, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen. I loved this line in her profile:

Sounds Like everything/everyone/nothing/no one

There was not a song in the bunch where I started to drift into other thoughts. Every song in her repertoire drew me in further. I would have preferred to hear another of her own songs instead of "Baby don't hurt me" but I loved her rendition of it, and the crowd did as well. I will certainly be buying her c.d. "Bible Belt" when it releases. If she turns up in your town you better go now. Later you will be paying big bucks for tickets. I think you will be hearing a lot more about her in the future.

Preacher's kid, go figure. I'm in awe.

Old favorites: Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Cole Porter. New favorite: Diane Birch.

This unique opportunity was provided to me by the One2One Network