Melody Gardot @ WXPN Free at Noon

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Melody Gardot @ WXPN Free at Noon

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So I have Fridays off from work. I also got up at a reasonable hour and didn't have a shoot. That left me with the chance to head over to World Cafe Live for XPN's Free at Noon concert featuring Melody Gardot, one of Philly's finest. Armed with a 4 piece band, her fingers strumming guitars and tickling the ivories, a sultry French-accented voice and legs that make your mind wander, she blew the crowd away. One lady standing next to me exclaimed to her male friend, "Look at those legs!" to which he replied, "They're almost as incredible as her voice." I guess I wasn't alone in noticing.

I had never heard of her before last night. Andi told me she was thinking of heading to the show and I took a listen and RSVP'd right away. Gardot was the 3rd artist whose music I was completely unfamiliar with 24 hours before seeing them live.

Her 45 minute set was a nice blend of tempos. The afternoon kicked off with an a capella blues song because "all jazz comes from the blues". With the help of the crowd's snapping fingers, she belted one out.

The set list isn't up yet on the XPN Music Blog so I can't say what songs she played, but you can take a listen to the entire set here. To take a listen to more of her music, check out her MySpace.

Above, Gardot asks XPN's Music Director Dan Reed for permission to sing an encore to the crowd who ants her to keep playing for another few hours. She tells the crowd to come see her show later this evening at WCL (unfortunately, it's sold out). A random woman in the front row gives her the okay and that's good enough for her. She reeled off a story of how her eastern European grandmother used to watch her as a child. She used to be plopped in front of the TV and stuck a copy of The Wizard of Oz for Gardot to watch. The soundtrack stayed in her psyche and the song Over the Rainbow kept a very special meaning in her heart. She dedicated her encore cover performance to her grandmother. All jazzed up, Garland's tune sounded nicely modern.

At the ripe age of 23 (yes, she's all of 23), she's been through a bunch. A nasty car accident where she was hit by a Jeep while riding her bicycle 4 years ago has her walking with the help of a lovely wooden cane. Her lyrics open the listener's ears to some of the heartache she's been through, but looking at her flickr stream, she looks happily involved.

Here's Gardot with her bandmates saying thank you to the crowd. Her music can be purchased via her website on iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody.

More photos of this concert and other XPN Free at Noon concerts can be seen in my WXPN Free at Noon Concerts flickr set.