Frazey Ford Brings Her Soul-Soaked Sound to Joe’s Pub

Entering Joe’s Pub the night of Nov 11, I saw this great photo of the recently deceased Allen Toussaint, playing with Elvis Costello. It seemed a suitable inspiration for one of my most anticipated shows of this fall: Frazey Ford playing her first Manhattan show in several years. Ford’s recent album, “Indian Ocean,” is an infectiously listenable collection of songs that brings a unique fusion of Canadian folk and southern soul and R&B to listeners’ ears. The new record was triggered when filmmaker and Muddy Waters biographer Robert Gordon heard Ford’s warm, dusky voice on a Memphis radio station, and missing an ID of who he’d just heard, called the station for her name. Soon, he’d helped arrange for Ford to record at Royal Studios in Memphis, home base for soul master Al Green, where she got the chance to play with his backing band the Hi Rhythm Section, working with Green’s longtime producer Willie Mitchell.

When I saw the stage set-up at Joe’s Pub, I was glad to see room had been made for horn players, so I knew the sounds of the new album would be faithfully rendered in this show. When the band came out, I saw Ford, decked out in a retro-looking hat and sparkly pant suit, flanked by players on trumpet, sax, lead guitar, bass, and drummer, with a back-up singer and Ford playing acoustic guitar. The six-piece outfit made for a very full sound. They launched in to songs from the current album: “Three Old Trees,” “September Fields,” “Natural Law,” “Done,” and “You’re Not Free,” as well as “Bird of Paradise,” from her earlier album, “Obadiah.” Her stage banter was fun, and funny, centering on the “draft-dodging” hippie family she grew up a part of in Canada, having presumably fled the US at some earlier point. Just like her recorded work, I found her singing consistently interesting in this live show, with a broken sort of phrasing that always projects her lyrics into interesting sonic space. I highly recommend you check out Ford on the video of “Done” (below) and on her current tour.