It’s hard to believe that Aly Spaltro of Lady Lamb (formerly Lady Lamb and the Beekeeper) wrote her debut album Ripely Pine amid her late-teenage years. For such a young musician to be so aware of her musical depths, her emotions, and the way her poetic lyrics seem so effortless, it’s something you just don’t hear of often. Much of the album is an energetic indie-folk, but it’s the softer songs like “Florence Berlin” and “Little Brother” that are the true highlights–passionate, haunting, lovely.
Lady Lamb moved from Maine to New York in 2010– a change that both challenged and inspired the softer elements to shine through in her music since she didn’t have a whole basement to herself anymore to play and practice as loudly as possible like she once did back in Maine. But that’s where her strengths are–revealing a vulnerable softness that’s incredibly mature and endearing, her voice intense and demanding.
Her sophomore album After was released in 2015, and just recently she’s released an EP called Tender Warriors Club on Mom + Pop Music. And her lyrics are stronger than ever, lush with experience (even if just in her mid-twenties now), which you can hear in “Tangles” as she sings “Love is a luxury that I can’t quite afford. I call it by name. And you know it just walks out my door. Maybe I shouldn’t hold it so tightly anymore.” And you’re once again flushed with emotion by Lady Lamb’s music, wanting to play so many songs on repeat, repeat, repeat.
The Knitting Factory
2/11
8 p.m.
w/ Henri Jameson
$15
ticketweb.com