The first thing you notice is that voice: deep and rich and warm, gorgeous, graceful, and somehow earthy and ethereal at once. It is an instrument perfectly pitched and primed to each line, with each audible breath. Just as warm and familiar and frankly right as the needle hitting the groove on vinyl.
And so it goes. In describing the vocal talents of Eugene-based singer/songwriter Halie Loren, the adjectives just start piling up. Heartfelt is one. Confident yet vulnerable, strong but inviting. Authentic is another adjective that rushes to mind—emotionally authentic, which, really, is the key to great jazz and great art in general. Not the play-it-safe jazz of mall-bound Musak, but the real deal. Think Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday and Joni Mitchell, or, more recently, Diana Krall, Norah Jones. But such comparisons are only historic reference points, a means of entry. What’s important to understand is that when Halie Loren sings, you not only hear the music. You feel it. She’s right there, in the room with you, filling the space with intimate stories of love and heartbreak, memory and hope, experience and passion—in a word, life. .... more
This young lady has a unique style, and I just love the way she adds the jazz arangements to classic rock and pop songs. I guess I'm hunting for albums again.
Check out her take on the Procul Harum classic.
Whiter Shade of Pale
And on another favorite song of mine.
Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
And an excellent version of a song previously covered by Norah Jones.
Turn Me On
Duet with John Shipe Recorded 4/2010 at Wildish Theatre in Springfield,OR for the release of Halie's album "Stages". Song written by John D. Loudermilk.
