With Janis, there is an intangible quality to her voice that commands attention. It is a voice that will grab you by your ears, whiplash your emotions, and drag you into her own private world of pain. Song and song again, she belts out lyrics with such visceral power that it somehow goes beyond singing and becomes evocation. She touches every nerve, pulls every heartstring, and burns like a shot of whiskey – just like her favorite drink, Southern Comfort.

But blazing with such intensity came at a cost: Janis died at the young age of 27 after a devastatingly brief 8 year career. With such a short life and curtailed musical legacy, there was really no “early,” “middle,” or “late” Janis Joplin… there was only Janis. A focused snapshot of an artist who unapologetically spewed out her raw emotions. She didn’t try to dress them up or make them nice – she let them shriek and growl; vulnerable, broken moments ribbed with jagged peaks of rage and anguish. A freight train on a roller coaster track with no breaks. The little Texan that could.

Lineup

• Larkin Poe
• Prisca Strother
• Trae Vedder
• Chance Walls