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I went to the mall this afternoon, mainly because I didn't feel like staying in the house and I didn't have anywhere else to go; and when I arrived, I headed straight for Borders, where I usually spend most of my time. I was looking at the foreign film DVD section when I noticed that the music in the store was a little louder and more vibrant than usual, as though someone was actually performing in the store. But since I hadn't seen any announcements or advertisements, I figured it was just a CD with the volume turned up... until I heard applause and glanced back towards the café, and saw there really was someone performing there.

So I ordered a large latté and sat down to listen to the rest of the concert. It turned out to be a country singer named Lisa Dames, accompanied by her acoustic guitarist, Sam Frazier. I'd never heard of either of them before, since I don't really follow country music closely, and she's on a small independent label and thus hasn't gotten a huge amount of publicity. But I don't expect she'll stay unknown, because she has an impressive voice (in between songs, she mentioned having performed in a couple of stage productions about Patsy Cline, and it's easy to see why), she writes her own material in addition to performing songs written by Nashville songwriters, and Frazier's guitar playing is just as important as her singing (I heard lots of echoes of Leo Kottke's style in his solos). I don't know if performing in half-empty Borders coffee shops is really a brilliant promotional strategy, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

Her CD, unfortunately, is a little too slick for my tastes, with fairly unadventurous mainstream country-pop production and Frazier nowhere to be found (and he probably wouldn't be audible in the mix anyway). Clearly, the acoustic live format is better suited to her talents, and also allows for greater diversity of material-- she did a surprisingly excellent version of "I Will Survive" at the close of her set. Maybe she should just record one of these Borders performances and release it as an album; but that probably wouldn't get any radio airplay, and that's a shame. Why does everything have to be streamlined and homogenized for it to actually sell?