Joan Wasser took the long route, but she’s none the worse for it. After the tragic, premature death of her boyfriend Jeff Buckley (Grace), she held herself together by working on Anthony & The Johnson’s I Am A Bird Now, which won Britain’s Mercury Music Prize in 2005. A multi-instrumentalist, she was for many years a much in demand session musician, working with Lou Reed, Nick Cave and Sheryl Crow, amongst others. But it was only after touring with Rufus Wainwright extensively between 2004 and 2005 that her sound shaped itself enough to nudge her into the limelight, through her band Joan as Police Woman.
Performing in Tel Aviv’s Zappa Club this Saturday, Joan as Police Woman (the name references the 70s TV cop show starring Angie Dickinson) have released three albums of original music: 2006’s Real Life, 2008’s To Survive and this year’s The Deep Field, which cracked the Top 40 in the United Kingdom. There’s also an album of cover versions, called – imaginatively – Covers.
Joan as Police Woman produce visceral, emotionally raw music, Wasser’s trembling yet insistent vocals hovering above occasionally complex, always catchy melodies. Her lyrics are deep, meaningful; songs about love, insecurity, the constant search for true contentment.
Touring is a given for musicians these days, given the parlous state of the music industry; Joan as Police Woman have toured extensively across Europe over the last five year, but this will be the band’s first visit to Israel. Get in on the ground floor, if you can: I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about Wasser and her band in these parts soon.
Joan As Police Woman – supported by The Walking Man (Gilad Kahana and Ninet Tayeb) at the Zappa Club, Raul Wallenberg 26, Tel Aviv. Doors open 9.00pm
www.zappa-club.co.il
