Rachael Yamagata at the World Cafe

Rachael Yamagata at the World Cafe, taped "Sidedish friend":

And "What if I leave":

She was the best. This set was really emotional, her songs are no walk in the park, hence her hilarious banter in between songs that deflates it a bit.

Her voice live is just incredible, she had been playing NY the night before and was tired but you couldn't really tell.

Held a meet and greet after the show and she took her time with every single person, no hurry, was really warm and affectionate with everyone. Seems incredible that someone like her has had such bad experiences but I guess that doesn't really have anything to do with it most of the times.

Asked her about sheet music, she said other people had asked as well and she would love to release it but she needs someone to actually write it properly from her stuff and that she tends to stretch notes to the max (I know everybody knows this but just in case... music is Mathematics, and there's all this pile of rules and regulations under the name Harmony that all musicians must abide to if they want the sound to be acceptable, the chords to start and end a song, the transitions -not that musicians bear them in mind when composing but if it sounds good, 99.9% of the times it turns out they are following them... except that then along comes someone like one of the first music "anarchists", Debussy, and sends all these rules directly to the dustbin!. Most people follow them though, geniuses are not common. But Rachael shouldn't worry), she said she might tone it down a bit - really, don't.

Then chatted a bit about the Sidedish thing ( hrgg-ed together, unfairness - I have said it before, I hate unfairness, bad thing since there's tons of it around...and as she said "how can there be people like that?" /and as I say, how can one still miss them), got hugged, took a pic and "the end".

She moved to Philly some time ago so hopefully we will be able to see her onstage often. In fact there are 2 shows scheduled for October at the World Cafe, one with the Hotel Tour, the other one supporting the release of her new album, check them out at the World Cafe website, and don't miss them!. Her concert a few nights before at Johnny Brenda's was sold out, so hurry.

Listen to the show here.

The musicians with her:

Jason Kanakis ( guitar) / Kevin Devine ( guitar) / Jonny Flower (upright & electric bass) / Justin Saunders (cello) & Chris Giraldi (drums).

All of them were so great, Devine and Giraldi, all of them, really.