Candice Jarrett: Powerful Beyond Measure

Candice, as with so many of my other musical discoveries, came to my attention via the Pants, AKA, Sean. He dropped me a note and said we had to go to The Paradise Lounge and see this girl he found on myspace. Ok, I'm down with that.

What resulted was me discovering two artists I would quickly spend money on and drop to the iPod, only to listen to them over and over again. Candice and Juliet Lloyd.

Candice really impressed me with her musical talent and her ability to be just one person but make the stage feel smaller, more welcoming. Also, she is the first and only person I know to have covered Billy Joel's piano man... on an acoustic guitar.

On such a small disc, it's hard to say "listen to these tunes," but I would suggest pointing an ear towards these tunes:
Changing My Mind, if, for no other reason, this lyric - "there are so many songs about how you should yourself / sung by a girl who weighs 95 pounds"; 20-Odd-Years has that non-inspirational inspirational tunes; it makes you want to live with a lyric such as "it's been 20-odd-years since i've seen the sun rise / it's been 20-odd-years since i felt i was alive"; Take These Chances has an experimental kind of sound to an acoustic tune in the realms of some of Dave Matthews' guitar playing. And she scats a little at the end.

In the End: These are 7 superb acoustic tunes that show a talent on the rise. Support her, her music, and musicians like her. Please.

On the web: As many smaller artists do, Candice has a myspace page at www.myspace.com/candicejarrett with 4 tracks available for listening. Also, I have photos from her gig in boston on my fotki site.

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