Concrete Playground

Hailing from somewhere between California and a mythical, fallen city, Joanna Newsom extends far beyond the usual ethereality of harpists, basing her songs in a strong sense of narrative and boot polish charm. Having risen from little-girl-never-really-lost ranks through tours with Drag City labelmate Will Oldham, Joanna Newsom has released only two full-lengths to date but both are so good, she gives the illusion of prolificacy. 

Newsom's debut album The Milk Eyed Mender had moments of marble-mouth and a few "teen poet" lyrical missteps, but 2007's Ys, with its epic orchestration by Van Dyke Parks was nothing short of revelatory. Rambling tales of sawdust and shackles and the night sky and almost every lyric beginning with "and", Ys is undoubtedly one of the best (and conceptually ambitious) records so far this century.

Having toured Sydney numerous times at this point — starting at the Metro, moving on to the Spiegeltent and then the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House where the entirety of Ys was played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as part of the Sydney Festival, Joanna Newsom returns to the Opera House again this January. This time, however, she brings her own band, glimpsed briefly by audiences on her last tour and heard on her most recent EP. That EP, with its punny title, had a return to folk-charm with sea shanty stylings which seems destined to be a part of the upcoming tour.

Tickets are on sale now.