Nothing To Lose – Corinne Bailey Rae Live in NYC (Review & Video)

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Standing inside the gutted space of Manhattan’s Terminal 5 before the Corinne Bailey Rae show, the stage bathed in blue light, filled me with an odd sense of forlorn things to come. What with the pained verses of her keeping-it-intensely-real ballads, CBR isn’t the kind of artist that you dance the night away to cheerfully -- but she did manage to move the crowd, in a very different way, with her smoldering emotional presence on Friday night.

Spectators steadily filling the space scrambled for prime vantage points in the venue – and I mean scrambled. Some people might as well have been throwing ‘bows by the ledge at the bar, stealthily edging their way toward something to lean on amidst the standing-room-only floor. The crowd was comprised mostly of couples – that is to say, women and the men they likely dragged with them – and, aggressive competition for viewing space aside, it was a mostly carefree pack.

The tone for the evening was set for me when a portly middle-aged woman sidled up to the bar and ordered what I could only wager was her preferred boilermaker – a Stella sided by a shot of tequila. Hastily throwing back her Patrón, she set the tiny plastic cup on the counter with a smirk. “Gotta start the night off right,” she mused. I silently wondered if she were familiar with the sobering poignancy that Bailey Rae brings to her performances, and was properly preparing herself for it.

Sondre Lerche – Norway’s answer to Jason Mraz -- opened things up, much to the delight of the handful of fans familiar with his work. Resembling a young Ryan Gosling, Lerche barely managed to hold the attention of the mass growing impatient for the main event. When he prefaced one of his songs with the question, “Would you like a rockin’ tune, or to get in touch with your inner emotions?” someone screeched, “We want Corinne!”

As promised, at 9pm sharp the lights dimmed and the diminutive songstress sashayed to center stage, easing into the tranquil opening notes of “Are You Here?” from her latest outing The Sea. With a band at her back, any songs that might come off understated in her records were ramped up by the booming from her crew’s instruments.

Brandishing a disarming air that renders her a charming enigma, Corinne Bailey Rae has a voice that invites you to step inside and feel her pain. Her chords were absolutely flawless, cleanly breaking out against the darkened Terminal, filling it with feeling. Whether it was the particularly heartbreaking lines in her bluesy send-up of “Til It Happens To You” or the surprising island rhythms she swayed into her cover of The Flamingos’ “Only Have Eyes For You,” Bailey Rae successfully ensnared everyone in her emotional clutches.



Her latest project having been a literal ode to love lost – a reflection on the untimely death of her husband – the themes of the night resounded in her explanation of “Love Is On Its Way” as a song about “hope and hopelessness, and wanting things to change.” It was astounding that she could retain such poise while crooning her intensely personal lyrics, let alone pull it off so graciously. The highlight of the night – as it tends to be at her shows – was the veritable sing-along to her hit “Like A Star:” both an all-too-true description of what love really is, and how she so effortlessly handled herself.

After a solid hour of feeling her way through the flurry of emotions that accompany life and its losses, Corinne found herself at the end of her set. Closing it with her album’s eponymous track, “The Sea” served as her final farewell to the life that was washed away by sudden tragedy.

As Terminal 5 rumbled with applause when she scurried off stage, we beckoned her back for a swan song. Coming full-circle on the sensibilities she’d unearthed over the course of the night, she delved into a soulful rendition of Doris Day’s “Qué Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).” With this send-off’s hand-off to fate, Bailey Rae left us with the inspiring notion that no matter what may have been lost before, there was still so much yet to gain.

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