Imelda May travels in lofty musical circles, now sharing stages with Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry and other such performers. Though she was plucked out of obscurity in Dublin before crashing into the big time courtesy of a friendship with Jeff Beck and her dynamite performance at the 2010 Grammy Awards, she still sounds as excited about the music business as any “American Idol” contestant.
| ONSTAGE |
| Jeff Beck’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party with Imelda May and her band |
| » When: 7 p.m. Thursday |
| » Where: 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW |
| » Info: Sold out at press time; tickets may be available from online resellers; 800-955-5566; 9:30.com |
“I went to college for a while, but it felt like a chore,” May said. “I knew I’d rather be at a gig.”
So schooling herself in the music she loved, which included songs by rockabilly gods Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, May expanded her songwriting and performing, forming her own band about five years ago.
She only defines herself as “Irish and a Dublin girl and I’m a mad music fan and obsessed with rockabilly, blues and jazz,” but others see her as an innovative force that can help shape parts of music moving ahead. It’s likely fair to say that the thought of the legendary Beck, who met May through his wife purely by way of happenstance, leans that way as well.
Critics certainly do. Consider a recent piece in Boston’s Phoenix newspaper that describes May as “a 1920s lounge singer [with] the stage presence to match. Her retro vibe brings to mind a rockabilly Amy Winehouse — minus the grunge and all that troublesome legal drama.”
Well said.
The bottom line is that no matter how modest her demeanor, May’s passionate, emotion-drenched renditions of her songs fire up music lovers’ ears like few others. Think Patti Smith as a rockabilly artist and you’ll be close to the right track.
Her recently released album “Mayhem” hit No. 7 on the U.K. charts and has gone three times Platinum in Ireland and Gold in the U.K. With the success has come a host of awards and kudos for both her music and her 1950s rockabilly fashion.
To May, all of those accolades are just a bonus.
“The world is meant to have a lot of different people doing a lot of different things a lot of different ways,” she said. “Things fall in your lap if you just go with the natural flow.”
