"Completeness Magical": Carnelian Woman's Sophomore Performance at The Pub Quietly Dazzles
By Manny Melendez
Dawson Gentleman is futzing with his electric guitar on stage. He is wearing a black tee with Carnelian Woman written in orange-red, dark olive baggy pants for comfort, black sneakers, and a necklace of (appropriately so) a Carnelian stone. His gaze is intensely concentrated on the various buttons and strings he dexterously maneuvers during sound check, his wiry body coiled around the guitar, only pausing when he notices his bandmate, Heri (short for Herald), approaching. Heri wears a blue khaki vest over a white sweater and a black skirt, with long nails painted light violet.
Dawson looks up and reassures Heri that he just wants the sound to “pop.” They trade brief smiles in silent communication, and just like that, the sound check comes to an end, the bluish-purple lights on the stage dousing them both in an appropriately eerie glow—waiting for the show to begin.
Dawson and Heri form the Anchorage-based duo Carnelian Woman. Heri performed initially under the name Kody Hannah and released the album Dandelion Baby in 2021 (for a taste of Kodi Hannah’s sound, please check out this link). That same year, trying to recover from the impact COVID-19 had on her ability to make music, she ventured into social media for assistance in finding a collaborator.
And thus, the duo met by genuine kismet begot by chance.
Despite luck finding its way into both of their lives, Heri and Dawson do not bank on it as artists. From their devotion to the seriousness of their craft and their humility and candor in responding to my questions before the show, Carnelian Woman are consummate performers who are happy to let their music speak for them, just as it did this February 24th at UAF’s The Pub, their sophomore performance at the venue.
For this reviewer, it was a doubly appropriate evening, celebrating a rare full moon in February as well as Twin Peaks Day, whose third season showcased artists in nearly every episode, famous and almost famous bands playing at The Roadhouse, a venue strikingly comparable to The Pub in its ability to bring disparate faces together amid authentic, rustic charm that oozes with nostalgia. That Carnelian Woman’s sound shares much with David Lynch’s (the creator of Twin Peaks) musical tastes, well—that’s the cherry pie on top of the night.
Promptly beginning the show at 8:30 pm, Carnelian Woman opened their nearly three-hour set with their “streamable everywhere” song, “Whispers,” setting the stage (pun intended) for a predictably dependable night of music.
Heri’s live vocals were full-throated and reedy, bursting with longing writ across the notes. Carnelian Woman’s lyrics are sparse but pointed, painting the circle of love, relationship, wanting (and not wanting) and letting the audience color those circles in. Dawson changed from an electric to an acoustic guitar near the end, each strum like a warm balm, still able to sting when it needed to. This seemingly dichotomous duality was present throughout the show—as quiet as Dawson’s voice was in introducing their next song or engaging in muted banter with the audience, so was his guitar playing muscular and fiery, aided with the tender but blazing vocal performance by Heri. When her voice burst through Dawson’s guitar, as in a handful of the songs played, it was palpably volcanic, piercing the lights that glowed over them, eventually transitioning from deep blues and purples into blood-reds and pinks. But Carnelian Woman never forgets the power of healing either. It’s in every note of Dawson’s sumptuous guitar licks and the steady storm of Herald’s voice.
Assisting the duo is the Ditto Looper by TC Electronic, which allows Dawson to record percussion or a series of guitar chords and then, as one might guess, loop each or both, giving the duo their own wall of sound and freeing them to improvise further or try new rhythms and melodies on the fly.
Carnelian Woman performed primarily original material, but the covers they peppered their show with were lovely and understated. Their cover of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses was alluring in its slower tempo, taking the sweetness from Axl Rose’s song and amplifying it. Their cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” was equally somber, honoring John Denver but bringing their chemistry to his gorgeous melody and the lyrics so many of us know—almost as if by instinct.
Herald and Dawson share a visible directness on stage as they look at each other, a smile or a sly slide of their feet, to show how in sync they are. That intimacy made this reviewer fall for them as a band the first time they saw them in September 2023. It continues to thrill him as he watches these two talented and humble people cherish the music and each other’s company on every stage. Their devotion and passion for their art is so, so palpable, and it grows love on every stage they set foot on.
Or dismantle it, for, as a friend noted halfway through their set, “This is the best breakup CD ever.”
Indeed, Carnelian Woman’s sound is melancholy and yearning—Fleetwood Mac by way of Mazzy Star or Chromatics’ dreaminess filtered through Alice In Chains ferociousness and John Denver’s plaintiveness. The extended instrumental passages in their music are perhaps this reviewer’s favorite bits; the way they let the soundscape talk to the audience until they become hypnotized, entranced by the enchanting looseness of Heri (Carnelian) and Dawson (Woman) doing what they dearly love, the “completeness” and “magical” bliss of making music and sharing it with the world, refusing to shy away from their truths or their joys.
