Caroline Smith releases new CD tonight at the Fetus

Photo by Amanda Johnson

​Caroline Smith will perform an in-store with guitarist Jesse Schuster at the Electric Fetus this evening, in celebration of her new stripped down CD Live at the Cedar. You can read my brief review of the album in this week's critics' picks:

Caroline Smith's new live album was recorded at the Cedar Cultural Center, so naturally it's a pin-drop quiet and sonically rich recording that plays with a sense of immediacy, as if Smith and her backing guitarist Jesse Schuster are sitting just a few feet away. Though she normally plays with a full band, this two-piece arrangement works just as well, Schuster keeping time with a quickly strummed acoustic guitar and Smith's voice taking on an even more accentuated warble than usual, punctuating her more vulnerable lyrics with a noticeable quiver. Only a few of the tracks are repeats from her debut album, Backyard Tent Set, though most will be familiar to those who have seen her play live, including lovesick ballads ("She Ain't Got It"), whimsical tales of nostalgia ("Birch Trees and Broken Bones," "Sally"), and an agonizing and emotional plea to a boy who's done her wrong ("Denim Boy").

Smith will perform as part of the Electric Fetus's MinnEconomy series, followed by Romantica. The event is free, all ages, and starts at 7 p.m.

Here's a video of Smith playing a stripped-down version of "Tying My Shoes" with her backing band, the Goodnight Sleeps, recorded last March in Brooklyn: