Stella Prince
I was already familiar with Stella’s music and in particular her haunting Gen Z Folk voice. She sounds great on her studio songs but seriously took my breath away in real life. She began with her recent cover of For What It’s Worth.
Stella played many of her best-known originals and all of them sounded so great live. In particular, The Replay, Two Faced, Ruby Boots and What’s Mine really stood out. Stella also played a number of unreleased songs from her upcoming album. She let us know that Everything is one of her favourites in the lyrics and storytelling.
She entertained a full-house audience with other famous songs through the decades including unique covers of Stevie Nicks’ Landslide, Joan Baez’s version of Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, John Mayer’s Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and a haunting version of The Carpenters’ Top of the World. The afternoon was due to finish off with Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now before a loud crowd demanded a (genuinely unprepared) encore.
We democratically chose to have Stella play a final original song and she chose At Seventy which came with a touching story. Stella had seen a waitress in her 70s at a diner with flowers in her hair. Although the two did not speak, the waitress had a huge impact on Stella and she imagined the long life she might have had up to that random meeting.
Stella’s new album is coming soon and she played us the title track, Good Luck Is Hard To Find. I am very much looking forward to hearing the rest of the album!
Stella is in England right now and you can catch her on Wednesday at Green Note and at Long Road Festival on Friday at their Front Porch, as well as on her own website.
Stella Prince Q&A
I did my own research on Laurel Canyon several years ago. It used to be famous around the world as the home of Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and so many major music bands of the ‘60s and ‘70s including the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Buffalo Springfield. When I got chance to spend a weekend there in 2010 I was almost sick with excitement. It’s chock full …
Marta
Marta has packed a lot of life into a few short years. Her family is Polish but she grew up in Nashville before relocating to London’s Bohemian Notting Hill. Although she calls herself a songwriter first, she can really sing and performed brilliantly to open our afternoon at Green Note.
My Kind of Radio is from Marta’s first record. Make It Work was up next which was written aged 16 although it is on the forthcoming EP due later this year. I found Wrong Kinda Right to be extremely catchy and Marta let us know that it had its debut at the historic Bluebird Café in Nashville.
Overstay was up next, the first song written for the new EP. Don’t we all over-think and over-stay, keeping people close for longer than we should? But this isn’t a harsh song about cutting people loose, it’s really a more gentle idea about how through our own good nature (and against our gut instincts) we sometimes keep people in our lives too long - surely it does both parties a disservice to stick with a relationship long after the fun has stopped?
Just before Unlove You, Marta said something that resonated strongly with me even though I’m a prose writer rather than a songwriter. It is that she finds it hard to communicate face-to-face and instead finds it easier to communicate through her music. It’s the same for all writers. We can think of the right words only after the moment has passed, and by then it is way too late.
The set ended with If I Never Loved You, which was really enjoyable and also quite rare because it doesn’t appear on the upcoming EP. So nearly all of Marta’s songs at Green Note were unreleased, and about to hit your favourite streaming service later in the year. They all went across really well with this discerning audience which convinced me the EP is going to do very well indeed.
You can find out more about Marta on Instagram and TikTok.
Charlotte Shaw
This was a thoroughly international afternoon. Charlotte Shaw hails from Perth in Western Australia and has turned her back on guaranteed scorching summers to try her hand living in London, where she has been based permanently for just over a year. Her British guitarist Freddie Bennett reminded me favourably of cricketer Alastair Cook, although my bus had just taken me past Lord’s cricket ground... I surprise myself sometimes at my own thought-processes.
I really loved Charlotte’s song Sometimes, during which she occasionally called to mind the iconic Dolores O'Riordan. Overthinking was written on her return to London last year and Bye Boys is one of her biggest singles with a video shot during a very long day in Greenwich in and around a famous pub, The Pelton Arms.
Charlotte duets with Freddie on Until the Next Day. She finished with Why which has already featured on BBC Introducing even before its release, and it was a strong end to a very likeable and strong performance that won over the audience. Why partly relates to the idea that you can meditate and journal your way to inner peace all you like, but you cannot fully prepare for the impact of a new and unexpected crush walking into the room.
I’m known to have a soft spot for Australian musicians, not least Kate Miller-Heidke, Georgia Mooney, Zoee Byrne and Isabella Richardson, and Charlotte is really bringing her A-game to her London music career!
You can find more about Charlotte on her website as well as Instagram and TikTok.
