Laura Jeanne at the Barfly

Armed with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and her melodic, bell-like voice, singer, songwriter and fashion designer Laura Jeanne climbed the rudimentary stage of Camden Town’s the Barfly and began performing a series of her own songs, as well as a couple of well-known tunes by artists who have already achieved Jeanne’s dream of breaking into the mainstream.

She began the evening with Rolling Stones classic Jumping Jack Flash in order to warm up the audience with a old favourite, before trying out a few of her own pieces – the gutsy Never Thought, Number 8 – a song apparently written in 20 minutes – and the romantic Intuition, penned during a trip to Nashville. Her music is an elegant mixture of soul, country, and pop, featuring melodies that are entertaining, although not entirely memorable, and sweetly poetic lyrics. Like a cross between Joan Baez and Taylor Swift, the most compelling feature of the show was her voice – rich, sexy and soulful and a step up from her idol Alicia Keys, of whose work she sang the famous Fallin’.

The first half worked relatively well with the simple arrangement of guitar and vocals, although in order to make a better impact a band would have helped, especially since her music is more interesting when accompanied (clear in the studio version of Number 8). In order to liven up the evening’s second half, Jeanne took to singing along to pre-recorded back-ups – a much-used trick of live performances by even the biggest artists – but the result here ended up feeling like an audition for a local talent show.

The songs themselves were strong and catchy though, and all released previously as singles. They included the chill-out Love Is Here, her debut Coincidence from 2011 and the punchy Dream Believe Achieve, inspired by the buzz surrounding the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She rounded off the evening with her first-ever live performance of her latest single English Rose, a memorable track with a catchy melody. A girl of many talents, we have still to see how far they can take her, but the promise is there.

Mark Sempill
Photos: Charlotte Allen

For further information and future events visit Laura Jeanne’s website here.

Watch the video for Coincidence here: