Nan Miller @ Cafe Pergolesi – 11/14

My first thought when Nan Miller started singing was “Oh my God! That guy has a setting on his microphone that makes him sound like M. Ward!” It was just one of those little half-egg-shaped deals, but I thought what with technology being what it is and all that I just might have stumbled onto something ground-breaking. I still think that would be a good idea (patent pending, motherfuckers) but once the song was over and he paused to say something cute back to the giggling audience sitting cross-legged in a semi-circle around him, I realized that it was just a normal mike. There was a little reverb on it or whatever, but it was really all his doing.

This turn of events inspired dueling emotions. On the one hand, I was excited that his voice really is that silky and ethereal and nuanced. On the other, I was pretty bummed because my dreams of sounding like M. Ward are apparently much farther away than a special order at The Starving Musician. Nan went on to give us several more soulful, heart-string-intensive ballads in addition to a very nice Leonard Cohen cover that I didn’t recognize. Make yourselves easier to find on Myspace, people, all of this arduous fact-finding has delayed my trip to Safeway too long already. I found myself quite entranced, and the crowd gobbled it right up. They did, however, call out several songs by name, not to mention some anecdote from Nan’s past, so I’m going to go ahead and file them under “biased”.

In summation, I can’t be 100% sure who Nan Miller looks to for influence, once again because of the no Myspace thing, but I’d wager we’re looking at a roster of folk-rock legends and iconic singer/songwriters like Cohen and Dylan and all the usual suspects. Presupposing this, I’d say he’s done a very studious and successful job of emulating these heroes. That’s both a compliment and a criticism in a sense, but it’s a lot more of the former.

Ethan James