Nai Palm started her music career standing solo on Melbourne stages with her voice and a guitar.
She was singing songs that later became the foundation of magnificent arrangements by her and other members of Hiatus Kaiyote – including this year’s Grammy nominated song Nakamarra (featuring Q-Tip) from their 2012 album Tawk Tomahawk.
On Friday night I found Nai Palm standing solo on a Melbourne stage again, guitar and voice, singing stripped-back versions of those Hiatus Kaiyote songs.
She sang songs from Tawk Tomahawk – and a new, never-played-live-before song called ‘Molasses’ from the forthcoming Hiatus Kaiyote album.
Check out this video of Nai Palm performing ‘Molasses’ live at her solo show on Friday…
A different venue and/or a different crowd, and this Nai Palm solo show might have been amazing. She’s a fantastic artist making beautiful music – and an absolute pleasure to watch and hear perform live (I know from WOMADelaide last month).
Hiatus Kaiyote live at WOMADelaide 2014
The problem for me at the John Curtin gig was that I couldn’t hear much of her through the crowd 🙁 . And that made me miss the sounds of instrumentation from the rest of Hiatus Kaiyote.
Listen here to a dirty mp3 version of the song ‘Malika’ from Tawk Tomahawk for a reminder of the unique musical goodness of Nai Palm and Hiatus Kaiyote as a whole…
Tawk Tomahawk (2012)
‘Malika’ – Hiatus Kaiyote – Tawk Tomahawk
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Listen to 2 other sample tracks from Tawk Tomahawk here.
I’ll try and catch Nai Palm solo again when I can – hopefully in a sit-down, quiet venue where I can properly hear and appreciate her unique vocals and guitar playing.
People in Sydney can find a Nai Palm solo show at the Newtown Social Club on 5 June. Melbourne can get a weekly dose of Hiatus Kaiyote live at Howler every Wednesday in May. And of course the blessed in Melbourne and Sydney this coming week can hear Hiatus Kaiyote live supporting Erykah Badu. I’m amongst those blessed 🙂 .
