the new girl loves mayer hawthorne

Hey everyone! Laura Leebove here… I’m the new production editor at eMusic, so I’ll be posting on 17 Dots from time to time, as well as contributing some reviews and whatnot to the regular site. Before joining the eMusic team about a week ago (And what a week it has been! My head doesn’t know what to do with all this music!) I was freelancing full-time (aka broke), mostly writing for publications like Billboard, Spinner.com, Critical Mob, Under the Radar and Venus Zine. Feel free to stalk me on the Web here and here, if, for some reason, you are so inclined…

Some stuff I’ve been listening to lately: Owen Pallett’s Heartland (hands down my favorite record of the year so far), Anais Mitchell‘s Hadestown (out next week on Righteous Babe — folk opera w/ vocals from Justin Vernon, Ani DiFranco, Ben from The Low Anthem, Greg Brown…), and, thanks to Joe, this fantastic Smiths-like debut LP from the Danish band Northern Portrait.

More important than any of that, though, is that last night I saw Mayer Hawthorne at Webster Hall — the first night of his U.S. tour — and, as expected, he was fantastic. This Michigan-born DJ-turned-soul singer’s debut LP, A Strange Arrangement, was one of my top records last year and while it’s almost a strictly Motown/soul set on record, it’s Hawthorne’s live shows that bring out a little more of his hip-hop background. Hawthorne (real name Drew Mayer Cohen) didn’t waste any time amping up the crowd: He and his band, known as The County, started with “Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’,” an uncanny nod to the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” and followed it up with “Make Her Mine” and “Maybe So, Maybe No.” Mixed in with his straight-up soul tracks was a cover of N.E.R.D.’s “Fly Or Die,” followed by “Green Eyed Love,” which broke into Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend.” Hawthorne’s best known track, “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out,” was given the reggae remix treatment, and “The Ills” reminded everyone that despite all the crap happening in the world, everything is going to be OK, and Hawthorne made everyone believe it.

This guy is a charmer and it’s damn near impossible not to fall in love with him: Near the end of the set, he admitted that the whole touring-artist thing isn’t so much about the music — he actually just wants wants to go around the world and eat. “That’s love for me,” he said. Hey man, I think everyone is with you on that one.