How I Found Miwa Gemini

Note from GofG: As I have been discussing with Steve, I really pride our site on having the best team of creative minds around. Case in point, Etta Shon. Etta is one of our regular photographers here (click through our galleries to see her work), and, realizing that everyone is expected to bring a part of themselves to the site, decided to put the camera down last night, and send me a write up on a very talented friend of hers:

"This is Monkey Clive Jenkins. I told him he could come with me as long as he doesn't get drunk." Miwa Gemini is dressed in a floor length tulle ballgown and is pointing out a curious stage prop- a stuffed monkey with a giant head perched on a suitcase at her feet. A wave of warm laughter ripples through the audience and it is clear that she owns the room even before she's sung her first song.

Her arresting performance at her CD release party for her new album This Is How I Found You at The Annex last week was enthusiastically received by a dense crowd of die hard fans, friends, and fellow musicians. Among the songs performed were "Picnic," a dreamy, vaguely eerie piece about a secret meeting between lovers, and "Crazy Over You,"an upbeat but equally romantic piece accompanied on accordion by Aaron Burns, as well as an impromptu sing along with the audience.

Miwa Gemini doesn't mind the countless comparisons to Dolly Parton and Tom Waits that her music has garnered since her New York debut four years ago. Inspired by "red wine, trapeze artists, and tiger tamers," This Is How I Found You offers a strikingly emotive combination of languorous, haunting melodies paired with whimsical and occasionally quirky lyrics: "tomorrow we can wear our smiles like an old favorite jacket..." that linger with you long after the song is over. With twangy guitar licks accompanying her rich vibratto and intricately crafted songs, it is no doubt a showcase of her musical virtuosity. Check out her music and new album at www.miwagemini.com.