Joanna Newsom live in Toronto, March 13

For many, (present company included) Joanna Newsom's idiosyncratic voice has always been a stumbling block between the listener and her meticulously crafted music. Have One on Me (which I reviewed, by disc, here, here and here) will forever mark the moment that Newsom went from cutesy folk darling to full-blown musical maestro, and despite throwing accolades all over the album, I still underrated it. Have One on Me is Newsom's opus, a brilliant master-stroke that perfectly balances Newsom's knack for arrangement with her Kate Bush/Joni Mitchell folkiness. Her voice is dynamic and stirring, her strict pronunciation of each vocal syllable reflecting the precision with which she plucks her harp.

Newsom's concert last Saturday (March 13) at Toronto's Phoenix Nightclub was over far too soon, and was beyond worth the hour I spent in six-degree, torrential rain. The man beside me had pretty fancy equipment set out all around, so I had an inkling this was coming: high-quality video versions of nearly the entire show. Please watch her encore song "Baby Birch" below from front to back, so as not to miss the stirring ending or the triumphant crash of entering drums at 5:45.



In case you missed it, you might also want to check out Newsom's performance of "Soft as Chalk" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Don't worry, he only talks for ten seconds.