Ingrid Michaelson has gone from a flash in the pan to the pan that keeps on sizzling. She started out as a precocious young talent with her first release in 2005 Slow the Rain and saw her stock rise with each subsequent album. Her 2007 album Girls and Boys was #1 on Billboard’s "Heatseekers" chart. She became the first unsigned artist ever to be listed on VH1’s You Oughta Know TV series, one of the station’s most high-profile shows. In 2008, her album Be OK was 35 on the "Billboard 200" and #2 on Billboard’s "Independent Albums," to her latest album Everybody reaching #18 on the "Billboard 200" and thus making her a bona fide indie star.
(Right: Ingrid Michaelson's Website Photo) Ingrid Michaelson IS what’s hot today. She is touring on a 46 date U.S. tour in support of Everybody, an album that in addition to the Top 200 also reached #1 on the iTunes charts and #5 on Billboard’s internet sales charts. She is then off to Europe to follow the U.S. tour.
Adding to the mix and success of this tour is an odd commodity from top level music stars. An opening act that is equal to if not in some cases better than the headliner. That is confidence by Michalson’s part and a bit underestimating the reception singer-songwriter Greg Holden, who is opening for the majority of the 46 dates, would receive. I tend to believe it is the former having seen Ingrid and spoken with her (my candid and heartfelt interview with her to post here shortly).
Michaelson on tour versus her albums is in a way like Phish on tour versus their albums. On an album what you cannot capture is her confidence on stage, her lovely smile and her wry wit and playfulness with the crowd that comes off sincere as much as anything else.
(Left: Photo by Rebecca Sullivan @ Center Stage - Atlanta, GA)
As for Greg Holden he has been working in this country legally, now having secured a very expensive work visa for some of his life’s possessions and a chunk of his wallet. Having been here in the U.S. as an “official sanctioned worker” for only a few months, Holden has been on whirlwind, leading off on tour for Ingrid Michaelson and her band and getting to see the vast spaces of America mostly through the windowpane of a bus and the stops at some of our finest music halls.
Article comments
1 - musiclover
i truly enjoyed reading this article!!!
2 - R.P.M
Danke Shane musiclover!
3 - chelsea
love this:) and i love listening to ingrid and greg. they are amazing and such talented musicians--so if anyone ever gets the chance to see them, do it. you won't be dissapointed.
4 - Kristina
Great Review! The concert in ATL was the best thing I've gone to in a long time.
5 - Allison
really amazing artists! I think their music and lyrics capture the heart of humanity. They are fill good songs that can make anyone smile. (including me!) I saw the tour in Birmingham and they sounded even more steller in person. Which is saying a lot since their recordings and unique compositions are truely phenomenal.