Show Review: Aaron Embry at Hotel Cafe (2/2/12)

by Brad Roberts

Whenever I talk to people about the great "Let's Independent!" shows at Boardner's, the one that invariably turns up near the top of the list is the Amnion/Fol Chen/Princeton show of March 18, 2008. Talk about a night to remember! Wow, is it really nearly four years ago? I recall thinking, during the Amnion set, that I had never heard music like this before, and it struck me like the discovery of a new planet. Music that could embrace an unlimited range of styles and still emerge a coherent whole.

Aaron Embry and his wife Nikki Embry were the center of the band and I was so taken by their live performance and, subsequently, by their album, Amen Namo, that I called it the number one record of 2008. I still stand by that assessment. I saw Amnion as often as I could until life intervened and they became parents, moved east for a spell, and Aaron joined up with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, accompanying them on tours, both here and around the world.

Flash forward to 2012 and Aaron Embry is climbing back on stage as a solo act (at present) and on Thursday, February 2, I witnessed pure magic at Hotel Cafe as he cast a spell on a rapt audience, ready to be taken on a sweet and mystical journey. I felt transported to a place where time stood still as Aaron began playing his trusty guitar, his harmonica and singing new songs that are so plain-spoken and honest that there's no trace of self-consciousness.

He still radiates the aura of a kid who can't believe that people find his music so compelling. His shy and self-effacing stage demeanor melts as he becomes the storyteller eager to impart his tales of ordinary life as seen through eyes of wonderment. One song, for which Nikki wrote the words and later Aaron added the melody, tells of a family trip to the zoo, as interpreted through the experience of their three year old daughter. It was filled with childlike wonder and worldly wisdom.

The audience was hushed and the whole set was such a magical cohesive whole that it defied any song by song analysis. This music comes right from his heart, unfiltered and unencumbered by pretension or self-importance. He wears his emotions proudly and communicates directly, telling us what he feels with an openness that few songwriter are ever able to achieve.

To end the set he chose to move to the piano and play a piece he's still working on. I choose to call it "Aaron Embry's Piano Rhapsody". Musically complex and flowing with the naturalness of water in a stream, it was gorgeous. Aaron told me later that it was basically many pieces from many different songs (some of which I think I recognized) but it came together to create a hypnotic spell that only ended when the music stopped. This show was stunning.