By Will O’Brien
“We’ve been chasing the warmth on this tour, and we finally found it.”
Amid the controlled chaos that is the Big Ears weekend, Merce Lemon graced Boyd’s Jig and Reel stage with an intimate performance filled with delicate lyricism at 7:30pm on Friday, March 28th, the second day of the festival.
With a sound steeped in ethereal yearning, the Pittsburgh-based four-piece band – Merce Lemon (lead vocals and guitar), Reid Magette (guitar), Benji Brody (bass, harmonica), and Pat Coyle (drums, vocals) – ushered audience members into a headspace of raw emotion More than anything, it is ever apparent that Merce and the band are veterans of the stage, and their playful stage banter and presence show their comfort when working as a team.
“I don’t want to feel like a boss, I want us all to be participating in ways that feel good,” Lemon said after the show. I feel like it’s boring to see “perfect” music… f**k ups are fun and silly. They honestly help me to remind myself that it’s not as serious as we think.
Lemon’s sound comes from a place of organic storytelling and personal recollection, using the stage as a canvas to paint vivid pictures of love, heartbreak, friendship, and indomitable self-worth.
Considering this, many of Lemon’s lyrics stem from lived experience. It is hard for any artist to reminisce on the circumstances that surrounded the writing of a song, but Merce appreciates both outlooks on vulnerability in songwriting.
Will O’Brien
“I try not to force songwriting; I let it come naturally,” she says. Many of her songs showcase vulnerability, and Lemon explains “sometimes performing them is kind of weird because it kind of brings you back to that place, But, I think it’s important to put myself back in that place to fully emote the song in real life. It can be intense, but cathartic at the same time”
Merce Lemon’s performance on Friday felt anything but forced. Each band member played their role with tangible passion, feeding off of each other’s energy in an elegant, harmonious fashion.
The band displayed a strong sense of resilience and mental fortitude as well – on their route to Big Ears from Carrboro, N.C., they experienced a flat tire that nearly derailed that Friday’s performance. Instead of calling it quits and heading to the next tour destination, Merce Lemon found a way.
Lemon partially attributes the rescue to the kindness she has found in the South.
“The South is just such a different world…It’s not this warm in Pittsburgh, so it’s been nice to be welcomed. I mean, someone patched our tire in like an hour; the Southern hospitality has been really sweet.“