Loene Carmen, Sam Worrad and Cec Condon take to the stage with little fuss, while members of the low-key crowd talk amongst themselves. When Carmen starts singing – suddenly, almost without warning – the murmuring ends for a single, arresting moment.
For newcomers to Carmen’s music, the first impression is all about the voice.
Even with the unwavering beats supplied by Condon’s drums and Worrad’s unassuming bass, Carmen’s voice is what demands attention. Containing it requires every adjective that reviewers can think of to convey hot nights spent drinking whiskey at hotel bars, talking about love lost or never fully realised.
Once the shock of the voice recedes, it is all about the lyrics. Carmen is at her best when she is melancholy, and songs for the world-weary are not difficult to come by in her repertoire for the evening.
From the opening lines of “Black Tambourine” – “We all know / we ain’t got long to go” – Carmen expertly positions herself as the patron saint of all those who have suffered heartbreak or who have been broken by a life lived hard.
More energetic and defiant songs, particularly “Oh Apollo!” from her 2009 album, It Walks Like Love, offer a necessary reprieve from the depressive, red-wine rawness of “Lonesome Beauty” and “He Calls Me Flames”. The faster beats also present Worrad and Condon with the opportunity to demonstrate their considerable skills, which may not have been fully utilised, providing increased affect to Carmen’s poignant storytelling.
The set ended with “The Bee”, a song about a single, suspended moment of perfect simplicity – “I’ve never felt so still / I’ve never felt so free / as when we were sitting there / you and me and the bee”.
There is a puzzling sense of nostalgia for a time and place – and moment – lost, which pervades all of Carmen’s music. Perhaps this is a part of her musical inheritance; Carmen is the daughter of Australian musician Peter Head. In August this year, Carmen and Head released an album of father-daughter duets, The Apple Don’t Fall Far From The Tree (http://loenecarmen.bandcamp.com/releases).
Her country, folksy style represents a longing for a time that has come and gone – or perhaps just the idea of a time that can exist only in music. But, there is no denying the emotional honesty – a bit worn and beaten-up around the edges – that permeates Carmen’s music.
