Juliana Finch

Not many artists are down to share their creative processes with the world, but one folk artist is keeping her thoughts open to everyone. Juliana Finch is one of the most forefront and honest musicians on the folk scene today. She stays connected with her fans and even offers advice, utilizing Twitter, a blog, personal Web site, Facebook account and OurStage account. Finch not only gets personal with fans—her music is personal as well.

A writer, a poet and a musician in one, Finch’s music speaks to the nervous, lovesick teen in everyone. Her confidence in expressing her vulnerability is both astounding and relieving. Speaking the things that one else dares to admit, Finch sings of stuttering, heartbreak, falling hard for someone and other typical obstacles of that awkward middle period between childhood and adulthood. However typical these experiences may be, the fearlessness in Finch’s music is what makes them fresh and undeniable. Her latest album, How To Take The Fall, transfers well from the chill evenings to sunny afternoons, making Juliana Finch’s music the perfect soundtrack for those early spring weekends. Enjoy! - OurStage

How To Take the Fall, Juliana Finch's latest release is almost a completely self-penned album with the eternal themes of love, loss and longing. The girl who is throwing her heart around so easily doesn't belong to a particular age or fashion era - she's any girl who has taken chances on love since her teens. If she's like most of us, she's taken more than a few chances, and the characters in Finch's songs reflect this tendency to lead with the heart.

"Joshua" talks about longing for a boy oblivious to how the narrator pines for unreturned affection. "Carrying You" is another song, sung in duet, about a reluctance to let go after creating phenomenal memories with someone. Its story is reminiscent of Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go."

"Love Like You" is a first person narrative song told with Biblical analogies, accompanied by pedal steel and electric guitar for an old-fashioned country mood, it is one of the strongest tunes in the collection.

"The Wind that Shakes the Barley," a Celtic ballad about losing a lover in a brawl, is the only thing here that's not original. The song is accompanied by strings while an authentic bodhrán keeps rhythm. The same violin is combined with saxophone and electric guitar in "Rattle Snake" for a modern female self-declarative ballad. The listener takes a 150 year leap in American History between these two songs, one moment its 1860 among Irish-Americans, the next its 1995.

"Glass Heart" and the title track use Finch's vocal and loops, or guitar, resembling Annie Lennox's solo work. If Lilith Fair had a reunion show, Finch would easily share the stage with Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin. But this album is not so much about being female as it is about crafting material where every word of every story is meant and felt. - Performer Magazine

Who: Juliana Finch

Where: Beanstreets

When: Friday, June 20

When she sings, her voice emerging in a hail of whispers and bellows, Juliana Finch shines.

Playing to this crowd of friends, acquaintances and random passersby in her last regular performance at Beanstreets, Finch displayed a luster rarely witnessed at other local shows.

In less than a week, she'd be leaving Asheville to return home to Atlanta. It was easy to get the feeling, as this crowd teased and played off her, that she'd be missed.

As with a lot of young singer/songwriters, much of Finch's music delves into that well-explored territory of heartbreak, falling for someone new, and those other turmoils de amor.

However, unlike a great many such musicians, Finch employs a diverse set of dramatic lenses for spotlighting these well-worn subjects.

Take, for instance, the song "The Tip of my Tongue," about the stuttering inability to express oneself in the presence of a love interest. Finch's very humanizing take on this universal humiliation makes her seem both strong and vulnerable: She's quite confident expressing her extreme lack of confidence.

Other Finch tunes, such as "Love and War," have become well known via the singer's open-mic and every-third-Friday performances at Beanstreets. Her covers gave this audience a taste of how broad a stylistic range she can handle.

But many people that night seemed shocked that the singer, by day one of Beanstreets' baristas, had skills beyond the espresso machine. At a relatively young age, Finch has already established herself at the singer/songwriter-friendly Beanstreets, and the evening's crowd was peppered with notables from the local folk scene.

The 20-year-old performer borrows from a variety of sources, combining visceral blues phrasing with the intimacy of a breathy, modern-folk songstress. Finch's other musical interest, the black-comedy charm of Irish folk ballads, rounds her style out nicely.

"There are two kinds of Irish songs," Finch noted at one point during her show. "Those where people die and it's sad, and those where they die and it's funny."

That kind of between-song stage banter – along with the almost self-effacing demeanor she presented as a table of friends indulged in a bit of good-natured, farewell-show heckling – kept Finch's performance entertaining throughout its entirety.


(by Steve Shanafelt) - Mountain Xpress