Danielle Howle with Indigo Girls, @ Radio City Music Hall NYC 06.04.02.

It’s been a long-standing desire for years to see Howle, when the cds with band came out I wondered if I’d get the chance to see her solo. Turns out, that’s how she tours. She began acappella, then went rock, then country. They were the same distinctive twisting tones I’d heard the night before on Mountain Stage, a radio show some of you might have heard of. “If you Wanna Leave,” “Sleepy a.m.,” and all the tracks I’ve heard dozens of times as I’ve let her cds spin, and repeat. When she plugged her songs for sale, she said they were “for sale on small plastic discs in the lobby.”
In many ways, Danielle treated the show like a coffee house set, bantering with the audience, distractedly bouncing from topic to topic. Sadly some in the crowd chatted amongst themselves during all but the quietest of songs. How can you not like someone who says “I’m a dot-com, should I wear a billboard?” Commercial or not, her last song “Jesus Won’t Wait,” I think it was, was the most gospel of the night, with petite Danielle from Columbia, S.C. belting out gospel lyrics like an big ol’ Baptist church singer. Indigo Girls, on their Become You tour also made the Mountain Stage stop that aired the night before this show. they sang “Become You,” from the new CD. The beautiful harmonies and dueling guitars this band has become known for make me wonder why I’ve never become a fan. As they slipped in and out of foot-stompin hoe-down mode, I thought ‘maybe I should put that on my list of things to do.’ ~ Ment