I arrived at Hotel Café to find the venue well populated and Tristan Prettyman up on stage, “…waste all my time…” with an acoustic guitar in hand and a percussionist sitting on top of a box, tapping it while hitting the tambourine with the left foot (I could not see his right foot, so I’m not sure what he was doing with it). The atmosphere was warm and inviting as she finished the song and began another, adding in a funny comment in between to warm up the audience further.

Her set included both new and old songs, all done acoustically and accompanied by the percussion instruments, which added life and dimension to Tristan’s set. Her voice played over the instrumentation, at times rough and raspy, other times even and controlled, the notes sometimes breaking into airy wisps. Depending on the mood of the song, she would take the low road, rumbling over the lyrics with deep emotion, or take the high road, skipping through the words with high emotion. In all cases Ms. Prettyman displayed her talent and experience, aware of how to please an audience and how to hold its attention.

The highlight of the performance was probably when Tristan did “the Speckled Frog Song,” a children’s counting tune that delighted many of the spectators with its audience participation feature. “Yum, yum!” everyone cried out, immediately followed by giggling as they realized they had just been reconnected with their childhoods, which in a 21+ club very rarely happens. But that was Tristan’s gift; her semi-self-conscious personal anecdotes tied the songs together while at the same time connecting herself with the audience. Overall it was a great performance, and Tristan really seemed to enjoy herself, basking in the dim red hue of the Hotel Café.

If you want to check out Tristan Prettyman for yourself, she will be performing at Hotel Café every Wednesday night this month, April 2009, don’t forget to bring your long lost childhood.

Mirch
www.loudvine.com