The first time I heard Charlotte Day Wilson’s voice was randomly at an Amoeba in L.A. My ear caught a trace of a demurely soulful voice playing through the store’s speakers and I immediately whipped out my phone to see what was playing. It was her feature on BADBADNOTGOOD’s album IV (2016), providing vocals for the track “In Your Eyes.” Ever since then, the track has been on repeat and I’ve been heavily anticipating more music from Wilson. Just last month, she released her debut EP Stone Woman (2018) which features six tracks she mostly wrote and put together herself — a “one-person powerhouse,” as FADER put it.
In Stone Woman, Wilson explores new territory in regards to song elements, like experimenting with new sounds and trying to create different atmospheres for each track. Her voice has a very distinct huskiness and heaviness to it, which lends a hand to her music’s substance and style, but also makes it a little difficult for the listener to grasp onto the words. In my opinion, a little more diction would help to impart the message and poeticism of her lyrics. Although it is clear she has beautifully stark and raw emotion on her tracks, I was excited to see if her live performance would add another dimension to her newly released music.
Last Wednesday, March 21st, Wilson performed at The Independent in San Francisco as the opening stop on her first solo tour. She and her band had just flown in from Toronto, and the worst possible thing that could happen on Day 1 of any tour happened: all their equipment and instruments got held at the border. Despite playing on foreign instruments, Wilson and her band put on a dreamy and encapsulating show that showcased her skill and energy better than her EP could capture.
Opening for Wilson was John Keek, a multi-instrumentalist who also provided main vocals for his one-person set. While starting out a little shaky on the vocals, he regained more confidence as his set went on, showcasing his beautifully hearty voice tinged with soulful inflection. A mix of classical instruments and electro elements, Keek switched from vocals, to keys, to shredding it on the sax all the while incorporating jazzy runs and riffs.
Wilson’s band emerged onto the stage a while after and began a slow and ambient intro with atmospheric bass and cymbal sounds. A distinct plucking noise signaled what song it was, the first and title track of the EP, “Stone Woman.” Wilson walked onto the stage during this opening in a comfortable and chic tracksuit and took the mic. Wilson’s distinct huskiness was emphasized by the strong reverb filter on her vocals. After hearing her tracks live, I got a much better sense of the movement and dynamism of her tracks with the help of her live band.
She picked up the borrowed guitar for “Doubt” and then pleasantly surprised me by performing her and BADBADNOTGOOD’s collaboration, a song I thought I would never hear live. She also paid homage to another Toronto-based artist, Daniel Caesar, by sneaking in a few lines of their collaboration “Transform” from Caesar’s latest album, Freudian (2017), into one of her own songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI__MpaeBiY
Her performance was quite captivating and moving, and interspersed with a warm and easy-going stage presence. She talked to the crowd genially and declared her love for San Francisco which she deemed “super gay, which I’m super down with” (Wilson is open about her queerness and how it influences her and her music).
There were bits of saxophone on her EP that I thought were a great addition, but only after seeing her live did I realize it was she herself playing it. For “Funeral,” the last song on her EP, she walked to the side of the stage and almost seemed to disappear off the stage, but picked up a saxophone concealed behind a speaker and played it with ease. She closed with “Work,” her most played song with over 10 million plays on Spotify. A rousing encore brought her back to the stage. Although she did not have her capo and could not perform the song she intended, she improvised and ended the night with a sweet and simple cover of a small Toronto-based artist.
The R&B and singer-songwriter elements of her music are very strong in the cadence of her tracks, as are the soul and Motown influences that make themselves known in the style of her singing. The culmination of all these influences, as well as the emotional impact of her own personal experience, created Charlotte Day Wilson. Her performance revealed that this material was carved from her heart.
Written by Anna Nguyen