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An unlikely lineup at the last night of Brooklyn\u2019s seventh annual Northside Festival<\/a>, one angsty crooner Shilpa Ray<\/a> opening for the sparkly and jubilant Sun Ra Arkestra<\/a>. In a way it was the perfect bill, not only due to the heightened quality of the musicians on it, but that their disparity satisfies every longing you would ever have. To feel deep pain and anger out the mouth of Shilpa Ray, and then to have it lifted and kicked into the cosmos by Sun Ra\u2026what more could you want?<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t heard of Shilpa Ray, I am so sorry. Now you have. There was a time when I too had not. I saw her by chance at an Eric Garner benefit gig at Shea Stadium, and was instantly bowled over. She was center stage playing a harmonium with an angry sensuality, and had voice like Patti Smith wrapped in Bette Midler. Her performance was gritty and passionate, and quite frankly left me stunned. Where had this woman been all my life????<\/p>\n

Her impact was no less intense last Sunday at Rough Trade<\/a>. Her backing band, or, her Rayettes as she calls them (\u201caren\u2019t they sexy???\u201d) includes guitarist Alistair Paxton, the energetic drumming of Russ Lemkin, and Jon Catfish DeLorme on a wailing pedal steel. \u00a0Ray puts out a mixture of arrogance and sweetness-she\u2019s one of those performers you can\u2019t quite explain\u2026there\u2019s no quantifiable measurement of her charisma, she\u2019s just got it. <\/em>\u201cThis song\u2019s called “Shilpa Ray\u2019s Got a Heart Full of Dirt.\u201d One time a journalist asked me why I put my name in my song titles, and I told her, \u2018because I\u2019m a narcissist.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s the kind of remark that rubs you in two different directions, but you can\u2019t begrudge Ray for the honesty. In some ways that\u2019s shorthand for how her music makes you feel, like a cat being pet backwards.<\/p>\n