Inara George | photo by Josh Pelta-Heller for WXPN

Inara George delivers a short set of solo indie-pop confection at Boot and Saddle

January 29, 2018

02:01 PM

Inara George | photo by Josh Pelta-Heller for WXPN

Inara George returned to a Philadelphia stage as a solo artist for the first time in over a decade this weekend. In that time, the prolific songwriter has certainly been no stranger to the recording studio, having released three records with each of two other projects, including the one for which she’s perhaps best known, LA-based duo The Bird and the Bee.

Those in attendance at Friday’s show were clearly fans of George’s entire catalog, and she expressed her appreciation for that in expressly acknowledging her other work, as well as those who may have been a fan of her father too: the late Lowell George, one of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and co-founder of legendary ’70s boogie-rock juggernaut Little Feat.

Still, George was intent to focus on her latest solo material that night, as she and her three supporting musicians regaled the rapt Boot-&-Saddle crowd with a short set of solo indie-pop confection pulled with few exceptions from her new record, Dearest Everybody, released only about a week prior. George’s music was subdued, personal and intimate, and the singer was charming and legitimately funny too, with keen comic timing as she engaged the crowd between songs with a sort of faux-pandering about the upcoming Super Bowl.

“[Bassist] Wendy [Wang] told me I should say something about the Eagles,” teased George. “I hope they win!”

George’s longtime friend Matt Whyte opened, applying his rich Cat-Stevens-esque vocals to a new set of acoustic folk ballads penned under pseudonym Rupe Shearns, as well as to cover of Pete Seeger’s “All Mixed Up,” played adroitly on 12-string guitar and served up as a timely and poignant consideration of current events in U.S. immigration policy.

Check out photos from both sets in the gallery below.