I’ve been trying to go to more live shows all year, and just last week, after seeing Jason Boland, Mike McClure, and Cody Canada in an acoustic song swap, I noted that I’d covered seven shows already this year on the way to the goal of twelve–but I’d only covered one woman, Courtney Patton. This was certainly not intentional, but it did seem weird to me looking back, considering I do listen to a lot of women artists and feature them all the time on this site. But this is how it happened, and I was hoping to find some more women to support live. Then, on Friday, (6/29_, at around 5 PM, I saw Jamie Lin Wilson’s tweet that she’d made it to Oklahoma City in a borrowed van and would be playing The Blue Door that night. So with only three hours’ notice, I went; I’ve seen her before, but never as a headliner, and I knew it would be a good show and a cool thing to write about.

As I say, I’ve seen Jamie Lin Wilson live before–this actually was the fourth time after twice at Medicine Stone and once opening for Turnpike. She also graciously did an interview with me two years ago at Medicine Stone, and among other things, she talked about how many women artists shine in listening rooms, as opposed to in arenas and at festivals where alcohol and partying are driving factors. She proved this true in her own case, as although she was great on the main stage that first year, she seemed to bring something even more special to the smaller, more intimate stage on which she performed in 2017. The Blue Door, as I’ve noted before, is great for songwriters like this, offering something unique and intimate and frankly unparalleled. It’s listening rooms like this one where you feel like you’re just chilling with the artist, where everything feels informal and personal.

What Jamie Lin Wilson has that sets her apart from many songwriters, both men and women, who thrive in these types of venues is stage presence and charisma. She’s happy joking with her band and with the crowd, ruining the joke of why the chicken crossed the road, teasing her electric guitar player about borrowing all of her stuff in order to actually come on the road and play for her, and telling us about the line dancers in France that are obsessed with one of Courtney Patton’s early songs. But between all these lighthearted, fun moments, she’s got songs with such depth of feeling, like the bittersweet “Dusty Shoes” or the resigned “Just Like Heartache.” I’ve seen her do this song before, but I am always amazed by her version of Tom Petty’s “Room at the Top.” She worked in some Trishas songs as well, like “Little Sweet Cigars” and the closer, “drive.”

And yes, we did hear some songs from the new album coming out in October. She commented that she observed a lot for this record, just watched things happen around her and wrote them down. We heard a song about her daughter’s reaction watching the clouds pass over during the first cold front and another inspired by her friend who gets philosophical and poetic whenever he drinks too much. I’m so happy to hear that she recorded “Oklahoma stars,” a song I fell in love with last September at Medicine Stone. Evan Felker of the Turnpike Troubadours wrote the last verse, and Turnpike recorded it on their latest album. Everyone knows my obsession with Turnpike, but if you read that review, you also know I didn’t like their version of this song. It’s probably a biased opinion because I had Jamie Lin’s in my head already and an idea of what it should sound like, but I had been really looking forward to the song and then found it to be the only track I didn’t like on the Troubadours’ record. I still love Jamie Lin’s version, and I can’t wait to hear it on the new album.

I’ve been blessed in 2018 with not having been to a bad show, and i try to keep these little pieces positive anyway, not like formal reviews so much as spotlights of cool live music. That said, Jamie Lin Wilson’s show has definitely been one of the highlights of the whole series. And in the bigger picture, where the spirit of this whole exercise has been to support live music itself, her voice and these songs offer something in a live setting that can’t be found in the studio. I feel like a broken record saying that in so many of these pieces, but damn it, it just keeps being proven to me time and time again.

Best Live Songs: “Dusty Shoes,” “Room at the Top,” “Little Sweet Cigars,” “Just Like Heartache,” “Oklahoma stars,” “Whistling”