The acoustic material from this North Yorkshire singer/songwriter has such original style it is impossible to pidgeon-hole, but her songs need no labels, their messages reach out to diverse audiences from the folk world to the young alternative scene.
Elaine sings from the heart, her words spring from keen observation of the world around her. She has perfected her stagecraft through playing hundreds of gigs including a 3 month tour of New York City (she headlined at The Sidewalk Cafe) and numerous showcase appearances in London.
Elaine has developed a growing reputation for the intensity of her performances and audiences are captivated with an incredible voice and powerful presence. An Elaine Palmer show is an unforgetable experience. Anyone lucky enough to have seen Elaine live will know she's an impassioned and very talented performer who often, during her songs, loses herself in the moment in that wonderful way that those happy with their musical lot do. Her guitar playing is never less than wonderful and her voice sails above the music as if the two were massively detached. When you see her play, her casual mastery of the vocal acrobatics and intricate and touching guitar work is astounding.
Elaine's flawless and incredible devotion to her music is strikingly apparent, these days she can afford to be selective about the gigs she plays. In just 18 months the acoustic singer/songwriter has moved from playing most shows she's offered, to prestige shows at London's top clubs. From "have-guitar-will-travel" to "have-guitar-will-think-about-it". And now, thanks to a new manager in London, she's making progress playing gigs all over the country and looking towards that ever-elusive recording contract. But all with both feet still firmly planted on the ground.
"My manager is organising some really good showcases for me in London so it's starting to become serious for me now," says Elaine.
"I did the Kashmir Club in London recently and you get great audiences down there. That type of venue is so specified with my style of acoustic music that the audiences that go there know what they're going for - they're so quiet during the performance that it's just a privilege to play for them.
"Now I'm starting to do more gigs where I'm playing specifically for people who like this niche of music. I don't have to do just any gig."
It's been hard work, but a job the Danby-based performer has relished. Dedicating herself to building a career after she finished university in Manchester, she headed for New York in September 1999. A three-month stint of performing later and she was back in the UK to start building her reputation here. And she has.
Since then she's deservedly attracted plenty of positive reviews from music press all around the country.
By the time Elaine Palmer came to the stage there was no room at the inn - literally. The only place to see or hear her was to stand outside in the next room. This was very much a home gig for Elaine who only lives down the bottom of the hill. In fact, that night she seemed so at home she might easily have been entertaining in her own front room. She is just so at ease with the art of performing, a natural born singer/songwriter, you might say.
Picture the scene: more than 100 people crammed into every inch of space, hanging onto each and every word and every last note. Elaine pulls us through the traumas of knotted relationships and ugly entanglements. It gets messy, it gets ugly but every now and then she puts a little sugar in our tea. Spinning a precious little ditty. Tremendous songs that spring to life in her hands and mouth. In Space Girls she parades her mega-epic, in Lovers And Lies she has a ready-made hit single. She's getting good now, very good.
Rob Nichols - Evening Gazette
