Launching her debut solo effort, Juanita Stein, at the head of a three-piece band, treated The Prince Albert to a showcase of her new album America. It’s a twisted journey through Stein’s perceptions of the country, charting both her love for, and disillusionment with, American culture. It’s a conflicted album whose lyrics read at times like a tribute, at times a takedown. It keeps you guessing, so that after listening you’re not quite sure whether she loves or hates the USA. Tauntingly, her live show refused to answer that question.

Following the album’s lead, the set opened with ‘Florence’, a song inspired by the 1930s dustbowl-era, and whose jangling riff evokes vigilante justice among the tumbleweed. By taking a female character as her focal point, Juanita aligned herself with the subjects of her songs, making this and other tracks seem intensely personal. Lyrics from this song like: “working for the freedom you’ll never find” introduced the theme early of the elusive American dream. With little or no chatting between songs, Stein was straight on to the next track from the album, ‘Dark Horse’. It’s another moody song, one which she was able to bring more force to onstage than in the studio.

One of the most pleasing things about the album is that close listens reveal a neat mirroring of themes with its musical texture: it’s part rough and grimy, part bright and shiny. To illustrate this – which came across more immediately than on the album – Stein moved on from these darker openers, to the nostalgia-drenched ‘I’ll Cry’, a loving homage to the country and western greats, a style she would also reference on later track ‘Cold Comfort’. These are so clean and innocent-sounding, representing an idealised America, that they throw the more pessimistic (or realistic) side of the music into sharp relief.

Within her mission statement of ‘Americana’, Stein referenced a surprisingly wide range – from the plodding psychedelia of ‘Stargazer’ to the grunge-tinged thrashes of ‘Black Winds’, to the 50s doo-wop and 60s pop of ‘It’s All Wrong’. As a general rule, Stein seemed to cut loose onstage, singing more passionately and filling out her songs with a rougher, harder tone. Only ‘It’s All Wrong’ felt like a detraction from the album – stripped to a two part harmony, it lacked the blissful perfection of the studio version.

However she made up for this elsewhere. She strayed only a little from the order of songs on the album, perhaps because it’s so tidily arranged that she didn’t need to, and played only two tracks that don’t appear on it: ‘Bones’, which was the fiercest performance of the evening and her encore, a Dolly Parton cover where she plainly laid out the legacy of Parton in her own songwriting.

The songs, and the whole performance, had such a film of idealism hanging over them that they seemed almost unreal. It’s a sense that Stein actively cultivates as she references the tropes of country and western music while simultaneously chipping away at their foundations. Her performance was not a significant departure from her album – however it was every bit as stylish and compelling.

Ben Noble

Website: juanitastein.com