Jann Arden

Rockin with Jann Arden, at last. 6 09 2014 Jann clearly is no pretentious diva or sex god. The opening lit logo image of her “shape” was testament to her style: She is “large” and proud! Her worst nightmare being if her skirt would fall down on stage, but as she quipped, she has hips and that probably only happens with skinny girls! Her years of touring experience shone through. She was at ease with the crowd – connecting, joking and sharing her fears, dreams and wishes. She perhaps wants to be a sexy rock chick: her leather boots and faux-leather jacket paid testament to that but her self-deprecating humour “I have sweat rolling down my butt” was shared to confirm she was like one of us, “hot and human!”.
And human she is with a few wobbly notes for the first song but thereafter she was rockin, rolling and cruising with her dyed blond hair and amazing support band. Sadly I made no notes and can’t recall the names of the band other than they hailed from Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary as well as USA. I’ll research and update later…
She kicked off with some of her older tracks (and my favourites Time for Mercy, Will You Remember Me, Good Mother and Unloved) but was careful to weave in her newer material from her latest CD Everything Almost. This latest collaboration with Grammy Award winning producer Bob Rock is considered to be amongst Jann’s finest work – progressive, yet retaining the magic that is distinctly Jann. Her support band were really ace, tight and professional. Special mention should be made of her keyboard/violin player.
Within the show she helped cheer up one lady who was celebrating her 60th birthday, who had thought she was coming to see Ann Murray, by singing “Songbird”. Whilst sang in a tongue in cheek manner, it was an audience pleaser! Jann also sang another strong cover favourite by Carly Simon “You’re so Vain”. She speculated Carly was singing about Woody Allan to the amusement of the crowd.
Full of surprises Jann let her band entertain the crowd and gave the spot light to her violin player to give her a perhaps much needed break during the mamouth 2.5 hour show. She popped up in the audience, sitting and singing in the only spare seat in the house. Whilst exchanging banter with the audience she realised her adult theme conversation might be offensive to the one and only child in the room. She invited the little girl in the front row to receive a 20 dollar bill to go and buy a “pot or pan” to cover up her discussion about marijuana (pot). Later the same lucky girl received two more 20 dollar bills to cover up her embarrassment and serve as an apology for discussing her death obsessed behaviour in her early 20’s.
Ahead of an emotional performance of her famous hit “Insensitive” the crowd where privy to her fun recount of being interviewed by a Mississippi Radio DJ who had called the song Insatiable! Some sassy attendee stole her dramatic pause during her performance of that same song by singing IN (to complete the word insensitive) but Jann took it in her strike and acknowledged the cheeky person before completing the song.
The crowd’s receptiveness and warmth was well rewarded with a 25 minute encore AFTER the two hour show.

To wrap up I can’t put it better than Nac Southam Hall “ Whether she is captivating audiences with her heartfelt music, entertaining them with her quick wit or sharing her written word in a boldly honest voice – Jann Arden is a Canadian original – a brilliant multi-dimensional talent.”
If you have the chance, do try and get tickets to see Jann during this tour – highly recommended. If you can’t that do the next best thing, buy her music, you will not be disappointed.
See Jann’s Performance from a few years ago – still wearing those same leather boots! Sandra S c ARTHUR,