Terra Naomi

"Every once in a while a singer-songwriter comes along that is both compelling -- Terra's lyrical content isn't your typical somber diatribe -- and emotional. A New Yorker at heart, Terra's music is as innocent as Joni Mitchell while being as emotionally charged as Carly Simon. From the opening notes of "So Nice" to the closing measure of "Mama," Terra puts her vulnerablity on display without the slightest hesitation."

- Keith Ryan Cartwright

Ex-ugly duckling unleashes inner beauty in graceful pop songs

Terra Naomi was the fat, ugly girl you poked fun at in high school. Now all the fellas pine after her — especially when she kills them softly with her songs.
When someone tells Naomi, "Oh, being an ugly girl is what made you what you are today," she wants to roll her eyes and laugh.

"When you're a fat fifth grader with glasses and a bowl cut you're not really excited about how interesting you'll be when you grow up," she said.

She decided to shed her ugly duckling hang-ups — and some pounds — during her senior year of high school.

"I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I went to the Diet Center and got weighed every day," she said. "I lost a whole bunch of weight, got contact lenses and grew my hair out."

The guys in her own school still saw her as the "fat geek," but when she visited a friend in Connecticut, Naomi realized just how significant her transformation was.

"I had all these boys interested in me," she said. "I was like, 'Wow, this is cool.'"

Despite a youth spent despising the image she saw in mirrors, Naomi said she wouldn't change a thing.

"I'm glad that I struggled and had to deal with all sorts of rejection and cruelty," she said. "I don't regret anything. I'm happy with the way everything played itself out."

When Naomi went to college to study opera, she indulged. She smoked, drank and dated. Along the way, she realized she didn't want to be an opera singer. She wanted to perform her own songs without limitations.

"One of the things that I love about writing and performing my own songs is that I can use all the sounds and textures of my voice," she said. "In opera there's only one right way to sing. In my music, if I want to make it sound ugly or whisper something, I can."

On stage, it's just her, an acoustic guitar and tunes from her self-titled debut that rifle through her innermost thoughts on adolescence, religion and the boys who thought she was beautiful but broke her heart anyway. When she sings the words escape her mouth in a soft, almost whispery tone reminiscent of Norah Jones.

When Naomi isn't on tour, she's in the studio writing and recording songs for her next LP.

"I'm trying to write songs with a lot of different themes," she said. "I'm actually a really happy person, but a lot of my songs come from places of loss and have a more melancholy vibe.

"Before this whole war thing started I was going to write some happy songs, but now I'm like, 'How the (expletive) am I supposed to write a happy song?' But my eternal quest is to write a happy song that doesn't sound trite or contrived."

So what would her happy song be about?

"Anything. There's so much if you just look around," she said. "I feel lucky all the time but it's hard to put that into a song and express it the way I feel it — especially right now."

Matt Gleason, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8473 or via e-mail at matt.gleason@tulsaworld.com.


PREVIEW
Who: Terra Naomi
When: 9 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Cronies, 520 E. Third St.
Admission: No cover charge - Matt Gleason

Terra Naomi: Terra Naomi (Terra Naomi)
Website | Buy on CDBaby

Terra Naomi's self-titled debut folk EP sounds not unlike what Jewel's debut album would have sounded like, had Jewel had a brain that fired on both hemispheres at the same time. This may not sound like much of a compliment to Terra Naomi, who I expect would prefer a comparison to someone like Ani DiFranco (not to mention that it's not especially nice to Miss Kilcher), but I will ask you to remember that Jewel has a captivating voice, which was used to excellent effect on "Who Will Save Your Soul," the one song off Pieces of You that actually can be listened to without urge to garrote one's self with a high-E guitar string (Jewel has since gotten better).

Like Jewel, Naomi has a pretty impressive voice -- a forcefully sweet pipe that can surge forward from a whisper and then back again as need be -- but she's also got good songs, which really is the key. It's all solidly in the "folky chick with a guitar" scheme (Naomi's only instrumentation here is said guitar) so if that sort of unadorned, confessional music gets to you, don't go here. However, if you stick with it, Naomi rewards you with lyrics that are smart and sharply observational, regardless of what she's observing.

The album's centerpiece is "Flesh For Bones," the lament of a lover who misses what she's left behind, even though she knows "it's true what they say, you can't go back home once you've cast it away." Album opener "So Nice" is also a keeper, as Naomi gets a bluesy groove going. In "No Justice" Naomi takes on the role of someone who feels she has betrayed a child, and does a good job of encapsulating the emotions someone in that position rolls through without getting musically bogged down in the sad subject matter. There's a misfire in the ranks -- "Sunday's Best," a swipe at religion that's too heavy-handed -- but that's one out of seven, which is not at all bad for a first-time singer-songwriter.

- John Scalzi

At first blush, Terra Naomi’s songs seem like conventional-enough piano-based mainstream pop, but then you begin to notice how her powerfully yearning, dead-on vocals unerringly cleave the heart of each note, investing even the plainest lyric with a warmly enveloping soulfulness. On the bluesy plea "I Still Love You," luminously produced by Paul Fox (the Sugarcubes, Robyn Hitchcock), she stretches out the word "love" with an extra claw-shaped whorl of gospel wailing that digs into the brain. Her best original tunes match lush pop hooks with lyrics that reflect her rebellious, unpredictable personality, such as "Up Here," a literal (if gorgeously delivered) fuck-you to folks who judge her by her tattoo: "Don’t follow me around next time I’m shopping in your store." On "The Vicodin Song," from 2004’s Live & Free EP, she find humor in her own romantic desperation: "I’ve got Vicodin/do you want to come over? . . . I’ve got a pocketful of pills and I want a lover." We’re on our way. (Falling James)
- LA Weekly

“Terra Naomi puts 100 percent into everything she does. She works tirelessly at building her following, and her music and voice are amazing." - Music Connection Magazine

One such impassioned musical creator is Terra Naomi, who holds a weekly Saturday residency at the Hotel Cafe. Known by her fans as one of the hardest-working women in show business, no performance is too inconsequential for the songstress, who plays in local records stores, at local radio stations, high schools and even rehab centers.

Inspired by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash, Carole King and Chet Baker, Naomi nonetheless gives the classic rock genre her own spin. She has independently sold more than 5,000 CDs through her website and is one of the new soulful singer/songwriters to watch. We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.

- Los Angeles Times

"The second CD I had the pleasure of reviewing was a 4-song sampler by terra naomi (hmm, another no caps-er...). I must say I found her to be an amazing artist. By looking at her website she just seems like a really cool person on top of it all. She seems like a Jewel/Elton John kind of singer...very lyrical, and beautifully done, with a light sprinkling of rock and roll. Her songs are a tad bit slower, but they work really really well. I thoroughly enjoyed her CD and one that I would definitely recommend, and wouldn't mind owning myself. She seems to have led an interesting life, and has a fun way of writing about it, so that kind of makes me like her music a little more too...a little unfair, perhaps, but a good personality can go a long way. I gave her 9/10. Kudos Terra...you have received my highest score to date! You get a gold star in my books."
- WSMR 89.1, Miami University Radio Station

"At first listen, Naomi sounds a bit like Beth Hart or Heather Nova, but this LA-based singer has more grit than Nova and less brass than Hart..." - laist.com