There’s a smokey quality to Rachael Yamagata’s voice and music, a torch singer’s angle, though not doomed. Instead, you count on Yamagata to work through it, swim to the surface despite the weight. Her songs can cradle, soothe or excite, expressing the hesitance and optimism of a would-be lover. Think Dusty Springfield — or Bonnie Raitt, to whom she’s often compared.
Rachael Yamagata
Where: Blue Note Hawaii
When: 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday
Cost: $21.25-$45
Info: ticketweb.com or 777-4890
Those who have followed the performer since her debut in 2004 with “Happenstance” know Yamagata always rises, and she likes to keep her music fresh, whether recorded or live. Her latest efforts will be put to the test for Hawaii listeners when she comes to the Blue Note for two shows on Thursday.
Her latest music has an emotional, hopeful quality, and her new album, “Tightrope Walker,” portrays a bolder artist who is willing to take charge and take chances.
A wistful love song, “Let Me Be Your Girl,” sounds like romantic Memphis soul, but takes on darker possibilities with a video treatment by actor Allison Janney, who makes herself up like a clown, dances alone, and finally smears away her eager-to-please performer’s mask.
“Nobody” is a portrait of over-the-edge obsession, with its jagged musical touches and proclamation that “Nobody knew you the way I know you. No one will give you all that I gave you.” On the recording, she lets out a keening moan, made sharper with electronic tones, hard-rock beat and angry blues guitar, followed by an unhinged laugh. Don’t take that reaction for granted.
With another breakup song, however, “Over,” she’s practically joyful. The melody and sentiments might make listeners think of Carole King.
Yamagata was alone, sitting in front of a computer on her tour bus in Minneapolis, when she called Hawaii. “It’s … a little spooky,” she said, as the day waned in that city while her tour mates were out exploring.
Overall, though, “all good things” are happening in her life right now. Even the tour bus was a sign of that — a bigger budget, bigger audiences. “Usually, we travel by van,” she said. “So this is different.”
On a previous day, she was sitting inside the parked bus when former President Bill Clinton walked across the street, taking pictures outside while she looked out the window. In a coming day, she would appear on the Howard Stern show as part of his tribute to the Beatles album “Revolver” (Stern’s favorite album).
Yamagata sang a cover of George Harrison’s “Love You Too.” The song includes the lyrics, “Each day just goes so fast / I turn around, it’s past / You don’t get time to hang a sign on me / Love me while you can / Or I’ll get a plan.”
“It’s kind of a frenzy right now,” she said.
She describes her latest album as less focused on romance and more positive, but the emphasis on human relationships is very much still a focal point.
“For me on this record, it’s much more about championing the human spirit,” she said. “While life is constantly trying to break us: How do we find the beauty in that — and still, overall take it less seriously?”
“Tightrope Walker” describes her current approach to life, she said: “Being flexible. Putting one foot in front of another, yet taking it to new heights, even though you’re at risk.
“I’m putting out hopeful themes, surrounded by this edgy production,” she said. She describes it as “kind of an angular production,” with harder-edged elements, aggressive beats and guitar.
Yamagata wrote, performed and produced the music, recording at a studio in rural upstate New York. She also co-directed and co-edited the music videos for “Nobody” and “Let Me Be Your Girl.”
For her Honolulu performances, Yamagata is considering a blend of music from the latest album and her new acoustic album of songs from “Happenstance.”
During the second set, she said, she might rearrange the music and concentrate on her favorite songs from throughout her career.
To be at this juncture, when national attention is falling on her music, when she is embarking on an international tour, and when the responsibility for all of it — music, tour, promotions, the business — is in her lap, can be both exciting and terrifying, she said.
“Honestly, I feel like I am the tightrope walker right now,” she said. “If I think about it too much, I will fall off the cable!
“I’m grateful, more than anything else. I do it and then I figure it out. That’s the way I’ve always done it. So to see it come together like the pieces of a puzzle, like a picture that I imagined years ago — that’s thrilling.”
