I spent the entirety of the Loveful Heights show Friday night at Starry Nites with my jaw dropped, eyes glued, in awe. These two ladies have an aura about them. They possess a striking confidence and a beauty that is few and far between. Loveful Heights (Maggie Clifford and Kat Wright) releases a creative energy that hits you, and holds you carefully. The entirety of the night was drenched in talent, the musicians commanding the back room of the cafe with a framework of mastered vocal, instrumental, and lyrical capabilities. Instrumentalist Michael Bullock jumped in for a few tunes, underscoring the vocals with bass and acoustic guitar.

The set began with tight, impressive harmonies, each singer effortlessly sliding up and down the vocal register. I had listened to some of their tunes prior to the show, but I was unprepared for the live versions to be delivered just as precisely as the recordings, if not tighter.

In one of the most memorable performances of the night, Wright and Clifford played a tune, "Recurring Dream," inspired by Lyla, an older friend of Wright's, who was sitting in the audience. Wright quickly prefaced the tune, sharing that the inspiration came from the wisdom and lessons shared in the intimate relationship between the two. As the tune progressed, the inspiration made sense, with lyrics like "A leader is always lonely// that's what an old friend told me// adjust you must// you must adjust// don't always memorize." The openness and lucidity of the performers came to the surface in this tune; this spot in the set came as a beautiful and evocative story.

The set list reached down deep into the pockets of a vintage, retrospective sound at times. "This is probably a song made before records," Wright said of a tune played mid-set. The tune had a surprise tempo change and a delicate momentum, with jazz/soul scooped notes and funky scat bits.

Through the clever use of minor chords, the pair took a stab at transposing the Robert Louis Stevenson poem, "Land of Nod," into a vocal arrangement. The poetry converted to a seductive, stunning composition. I looked around the audience during this one - each person was dead silent, evidently as entranced as I was.
After being apart for a few years with other projects, Wright and Clifford are now back together and continuing their creative synergy. The two will be traveling to Ithaca in the coming weeks to finish up a new LP.