Atmospheric folk artist Novo Amor kicked off his North American headlining tour with a sold-out date at Atlanta’s Vinyl last week. As the PA music started to dim, the band burst into Birthplace opener “Emigrate” with intensity and vigor, with frontman Ali Meredith-Lacey ditching his traditional falsetto to sing in his natural register — a wise choice that bolstered the song’s impact on the packed audience. From there, the band played through Birthplace highlights such as “Utican” and “State Lines”, but it wasn’t until midway into the set that Meredith-Lacey pointed out an unfortunate event for the evening. Ed Tullet, his bandmate responsible for the lovely harmonies that Novo Amor is known for was sick and unable to sing his parts. This is where the show truly escalated into something special; something like this would typically handicap an artist, but the sold-out crowd proceeded to sing louder, hitting every harmony imaginable on the lighter tracks “Anchor” and “Carry You”, creating beautiful moments that really exhibited the devastating impact of Novo Amor’s music. The audience’s power was not lost on the band; frequently, the band would step back to just let the audience have the song for themselves, with all 300 people singing in unison on a stormy night. What should have been a disaster ultimately increased the emotional power of the music, and one can only hope that Novo Amor returns to Atlanta with full strength so we can keep singing. Check out our coverage of this show below:
Check out Novo Amor on Spotify.
