A few months ago Vanessa Carlton released her Liberman Live album which was recorded at different stops on her tour to support her album Liberman. This week she released Earlier Things Live with live versions of older songs from her catalog. Earlier Things Live is shorter than Liberman Live but just as sweet, in my gay opinion.
All the songs on Earlier Things Live are just as stripped down and beautifully recorded as the songs on Liberman Live. Half of the songs (“Carousel”, “Hear The Bells” and “Marching Line”) are from Vanessa’s 2011 album Rabbits On The Run. Vanessa is one diva who performs what her fans want to hear, so it’s no surprise that she’d include live versions of her biggest hits “A Thousand Miles” and “White Houses”. What is a surprise is the addition of the song “In Our Time” which is a duet with her husband John McCauley that marries their voices harmoniously. “In Our Time” was originally recorded for the album Negativity by Deer Tick, the group that John is a member of and the song Vanessa leant her vocals to.
I have tickets to see Vanessa in concert next month and I’m curious to see what songs she’ll do live. Is she going to do only songs off her live albums to promote them? Will she throw in some tracks that aren’t on the live albums as a surprise? Will she perform the songs as they appear on the live albums or change them again? I guess time will tell, but no matter what, I know she always puts on an incredible show.
