Review: Karen Jonas, Hen & Chicken – ‘Vulnerability, warmth, intelligence and nostalgia’

Towards the end of her brilliant set in Bristol, Virginia resident Karen Jonas sings an astonishing version of the Gordon Lightfoot classic If You Could Read My Mind.

It is hushed and heartbreaking, vulnerable but with just enough warmth to reassure. It is flecked with nostalgia, is wordy, intelligent and opens up your heart with a surgeon’s ease.

It is the perfect song for Jonas.

Currently at the start of a 12 date British tour to support her latest album, The Restless, Jonas is a veteran of the alt country/Americana scene and is everything you want, everything that you need.

Starting with Elegantly Wasted, taken from that new album, she is languid and sleepy, warming up gently, telling tales of a late-night walk through Paris.

Her ability as a storyteller is obvious as she admits having never been to Paris, yet she captures the velveteen romance of the city with ease. She is the Cinderella of the story, an after-hours Disney princess.

If the start is husky and hushed then Pink Leather Boots is full of Rockabilly twang and cheap Texan sleaze. There’s more storytelling, more character building but now Jonas’ voice has more swing and sway, a bit more sizzle.

Tim Bray’s guitar sizzles too, roadhouse licks adding yet more Americana layers that only emphasise the dusty saloon sadness of the characters.

Jonas is an absolute master at creating characters and telling stories. Her English degree clearly helps with a lyrical, poetic ability and a deft way with words.

On The Last Cowboy (at the Bowling Alley) she paints a tragi-comic life in breath-y pin-up tones while Mama’s First Rodeo has a straight-up country chug and lyrics of disappointment, wariness and a hint of bitterness.

That’s Not My Dream Couch is witty and wise, clever and cool. There’s a bit of French chanson, a bit of jazzy snap and a voice that is part wide-eyed vulnerability, part sultry country queen.

She brings the same feeling to Suicide Sal, a story of Bonnie Parker of Bonnie & Clyde fame. It’s a story song of the very highest quality, like a lost 70s Dukes of Hazzard soundtrack, it’s gorgeously retro and smart as a rattlesnake.

Country music wouldn’t be country music without a couple of slower heartbreakers and Jonas is nothing if not a country girl at heart.

Forever is a lesson in nostalgic longing, full of sunshine and optimism filtered through a sepia lens of regret while Lay Me Down highlights the vulnerability again until Bray and his guitar heroics sweep the whole thing into an untidy pile.

You can tell a lot about an artist by their cover versions and, despite being a brilliant songwriter, Jonas packs them in.

There’s some Fleetwood Mac, some Tom Petty, a glorious version of The Band’s Evangeline – Jonas doing her best Emmylou Harris impression and double bassist, Seth Morrissey, harmonising beautifully – and a joyous take on Don Henley’s Boys of Summer.

Just like with the Gordon Lightfoot song, there’s vulnerability, warmth, intelligence and nostalgia infused into each and every one of these. Karen Jonas inhabits every single one.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

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