"GIG REVIEW: OXFORD, UK - MARCH '06

By Jos Betts

There’s a secret venue in town, that so far has survived by word of mouth, but with some great band line-ups, and a blank stage for new artists to perform, the Loft really is attracting some new, refreshing talent. The Loft’s songwriter night is crying out to be filled with the sounds of performers such as Luthea Salom, a singer/songwriter from New York who was headlining the show tonight.
Luthea’s diminutive form stands straight in the middle of the stage, one foot stamping lightly in time with the muted strumming of ’37 Kisses’, the first outstanding song of her set. Her songs are deeply personal, and she has few qualms about giving the intimate background to her material, treating the audience to vignettes from her life. Yet her lyrics are best when she lets metaphors do the work, in the uneasy calm of ‘Winter tires’ or the soaring desperation of ‘Ice-cream on sunkissed lips unloved’.

This latest track sees her adding the nasal tones of Joanna Newsome to a vocal repertoire which at times includes the smoothness of Aimee Mann and the broken diphthongs of Alanis Morisette. Luthea definitely knows how to put an emotive tune over two chords, and her voice drives through choruses with a kind of melodic defiance which is communicated through every note she plays. Whilst some of her sentiments find expression in clichés, Luthea Salom offers real substance and feeling in some beautiful songs.

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