Jess Klein's passionate folk-rock (3/22/01, Club Helsinki)
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., March 25, 2001) -Jess Klein's performance at Club Helsinki on Thursday night, destined to rank as one of the year's best, was both an affirmation and a revelation.

It was an affirmation in that it confirmed that Klein is an intense, focused performer who early in her career has already amassed a compelling body of songs which she fully inhabits while she delivers them as if she is writing them on the spot. And as she displayed in two previous shows in the Berkshires over the last half year, she is a forceful vocalist, working from an unusually deep, resonant alto with an insinuating, natural vibrato that easily soars into a soprano that can whisper or scream on command.

It was a revelation, however, in that Klein performed with a three-piece backing band in fully-charged, rock mode. Whereas at Klein's earlier shows she displayed her mastery of the solo acoustic format, at Helsinki she manifested her considerable prowess as a rock 'n' roll bandleader.

Klein's songs can be gentle, delicate things. But the singer brings such dynamic intensity to even her quietest numbers that the electric guitar, bass and drums trio that backed her never came close to overwhelming her. If anything, it merely egged her on to even greater heights of passion and emotion.

Passion is already built in to many of Klein's songs, both in form and content. Passion is an ingredient that all too often goes missing in action with contemporary singer-songwriters, but Klein is an exception. Folk-based songs like "Ireland" and rockers like "Love Is Where You Find It" boasted plenty of it, and in the latter, which she belted with enough power and soul to shake the rafters, Klein revealed herself to be a veritable Aretha Franklin in Joan Baez clothing.

Klein's trio provided masterful accompaniment, serving the material rhythmically and harmonically but for the most part staying out of her way. "I Tried" was given an anthemic, British Invasion treatment, and "Cloud Song" was replete with melodic hooks.

Those hooks extend to Klein's lyrics, too, and she's a master of both. Lines jump out of her songs like catchy melodic figures. "I will lend you my silver lining," "Someday I'm going to marry him/But not 'til I'm done with you," "Today the spark went from your eyes/There was a seven-second pause" are all the stuff that catchy, literate pop hits used to be made of.

Perhaps someday they'll be made of it again in the form of Jess Klein hits.

Klein indulged her fiercer, more sensual side on several funky, bluesy numbers, including "Open Me" and "I Sure Would," which started slow and steamy and ended as an all-out punk-rock rave-up.

Klein's choice of cover tunes and mentions of other influences were telling. Smokey Robinson, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam and Dusty Springfield all came up either in song or conversation, and to this listener, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks and Lucinda Williams were all implied. Put them all together, shake them up, and channel them through a small powerhouse who seems utterly at home and comfortable on a stage, and you get a vague approximation of the excitement and potential of Jess Klein.

[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 26, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]