thoughtcrumbs

Lindsay Mac and Brad Yoder at Shadow Lounge

Margaret, Emilie, and I sprawled on the cushy couches in my new favorite music venue in Pittsburgh, the Shadow Lounge, Monday night to hear our friend Brad Yoder and the exquisite Lindsay Mac. Brad and Jason Rafalak on upright bass filled the room with clever lyrics and astounding fingerwork, as usual.

Lindsay Mac plays the cello. Sideways across her chest with a strap. Really. Fretless and with a distinctive dull vibrato, the cello sounds great strummed and plucked like a guitar. She opened with the jazzy "Small Revolutions" and sequed into the captivating, wrenching "Turn Me Away." She sculpts optimism and sighs into each phrase. I highly recommend her album.

Oh, and both artists demonstrated deft equaniminity singing acapella against a cell phone ring-tune.