Mary Lambert w/ Jillette Johnson at Fine Line (01 Nov 2014)

Tour Dates

Singer/spoken word artist Mary Lambert and Jillette Johnson are currently touring across America, stopping by Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Café last night.

 

Singer/songwriter Jillette Johnson has become Wal-Mart’s unlikely spokeswoman, having reference the store chain several times in her set. If you didn’t know, Wal-Mart welcomes RVs and truckers to use their parking lot to sleep overnight, so Johnson and her musical partner, Matt Pynn are experiencing life at different Wal-Marts across the country on this tour. It would seem that her favorite Wal-Mart night is spending it on Halloween and waking up with fried chicken on the floor… then to step into a Wal-Mart the day after and seeing random costumed people with her own clothing rivaling their costumes (hint: she’s not in a costume). Jillette Johnson seemingly wouldn’t trade this glamorous life for anything, because she is loving her time with Mary Lambert on this tour.

 

Johnson and Pin’s 40-ish minute set consisted of about half of her 2013 debut album Water in a Whale (including “Cameron”, “Basset Hound”, and “True North”) and the other half of newer songs that, as a “smart business woman” as she puts it, are not available to buy. One song, about reflection of herself in her loved one, was written just days before they went on tour, and the other was about a pair of red leather pants that she own, but no longer fits her.

I got the impression that Johnson compose and writes (and probably covers) a lot of songs in her spare time… and I would not be surprise if her next song is about Wal-Mart.

 

“Are you ready to cry?” starts Mary Lambert, who quickly added that it’s okay to have emotions… we’re humans, aren’t we?

Lambert’s show is about half songs and half spoken words/poetry/and random thoughts, it’s not a typical concert. Her full band (bassist Maiah Manser, drummer Heather Thomas, and guitarist Tim Mendonsa) play softly around Lambert’s vocals… but occasionally take over the song, when needed. These guys knew what they are doing, especially improvising and anticipating what and when to play.

You got the back story behind all the songs that Mary Lambert wrote, which are all very personal to her. She’s proud to put the subject and theme out there in the world, like her album title, she wears her heart on her sleeve.

My favorite story was her Halloween misadventure, since the holiday just took the night before (and apparently the band had a break in their long tour), she decided to make a homemade lobster costume out of found clothing. She literally cried out loud “But I’m not a lobster! You didn’t even know I’m not a lobster yet!” surrounded by passersby at the airport when she found her her girlfriend was dressed up as a lobster before she got a chance to make her costume. Anyway, she had a great time until some jerk used her claw to grab his penis in Edina.

Later on in the evening she went to a haunted house near the Gay 90s (a club in downtown Minneapolis), only to be greeted by a man with a waiver form. I don’t think she ended up going in the haunted house, otherwise we would’ve gotten the story on that too… but Lambert quickly realized she was talking “because she likes the sound of her voice” too much that she started a song – which the band quickly jumped in.

Lambert had a lot to say about body image and the freedom to love who you choose and is a great role model for young outcasts, gays, lesbians, transgender. You can hear it in her speech, you can hear it in her highly emotional songs.

You can find Mary Lambert and Jillette Johnson on currently tour together. Mary Lambert’s Heart On My Sleeve (Capitol Records) and Jillette Johnson’s Water in a Whale (Wind-up Records), are both out in stores now.