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I went to see the mighty Jim White at the Birmingham Barfly last night and a mighty damn fine gig it was, too. I’ll do a full write-up tomorrow. Promise.

The support act was Jenny Owen Youngs. I’d never heard of her before and missed the beginning of her set due to a pizza oversight that involved my younger brother [AKA Brother Younger]. Well, that was my loss. A feisty angel from New Jersey, she performed a beautiful acoustic set and effortlessly charmed the pants off a large segment of the audience, mine included.

Her MySpace profile says that “her songs straddle the heart-wrenching and the tongue-in-cheek and say giddyup.” Well, that combination works for me, and I couldn’t put it better myself. This wasn’t just your one of your run-of-the-mill oversensitive singer-songwriter types emoting by numbers. This girl had grit, attitude and an infectious sense of mischief. She ended her set with a blistering cover of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” that actually worked, fer Chrissakes. If I had a bit more money in my wallet at the end of the night I would have snapped up one of her CDs.

The fact I was somewhat smitten by her had no influence on my judgment, of course. Of course.