When one of your best concert buddies lives in Paris, you end up seeing some great shows in France. That’s how I found myself in Lyon during a warm summer evening last July, sitting perched atop an ancient Roman amphitheater built in 15 B.C. For this weekend jaunt, we had adventured to Lyon, France’s second largest city, at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers, to attend their summer music festival: Les Nuits de Fourvière.

Ironically enough, we were surrounded by French people, in a Roman amphitheater, about to listen to a wholeheartedly American musical genre – Soul. We had left our respective homes in Paris and London for the countryside in search of this night of Soul music, primarily the sets of Valerie June and Michael Kiwanuka. By using this concert as a catalyst for a weekend getaway to Lyon, we discovered a beautiful city brimming with 2,000 years of history, delicious local food, and hilarious salty locals. But no one could have warned us of the powerful show we had ahead of us – filled with brilliant music and thunderstorms, an electric combination to be sure.

Valerie June

I fell for Valerie June’s sound a few years back, when her combination of unique raspy vocals and authentic onstage southern charm caught my attention. A Tennesse native, June’s sound encompasses a mixture of soul, folk, blues, gospel, country, and bluegrass.  I was lucky enough to see Valerie front and center at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass last year. Since that show, she released her 2017 album, The Order of Time, which featured prominently in her Lyon show. In France her set was aided by a metrological cacophony of thunderstorms. As her set began warm summer rain showered us and brilliant displays of lighting seemed to pulse perfectly in sync with the handclappin’, foot stompin’ members of her band. My favorite song from her new album and the Lyon set was Shakedown:

Michael Kiwanuka

Michael Kiwanuka is a talented British rock music who’s been putting out hit singles since 2012. This year his prominence in the media rose when his song “Cold Little Heart” was made the title song for the hit HBO show “Big Little Lies”. This year singer/songwriter Kiwanuka released his second album,  Love & Hate, described by Pitchfork as “…a bittersweet offering, pulling from ’60s and ’70s soul.” His premiere of the record in Lyon’s Roman Amphitheater was both passionately joyful and overshadowed by melancholy. In album’s hit single, “Black Man in a White World”  Kiwanuka utilizes this musical duality to explore themes of self-identity and racial tension with humbling honesty and beautifully mixed instrumentals. As the lightning storm raged on during his set, and thunder roared in the backdrop of the amphitheater, Kiwanuka’s band and the political message of his lyrics cascaded over us with almost biblical resonance.

By the end of the night, we were soaking wet but grinning with delight, having just enjoyed a myriad of great soul music. After living abroad for two months, the joy of listening to this homegrown genre with my childhood friend felt like the best birthday gift. When we rode the high-speed train back to Paris the next day I knew this catalytic evening of storm fury and soul fusion would stay with me for many years, and for that, I was eternally grateful.

Enjoy my latest playlist  “Beautiful Strangers”. It features Kevin Morby, one of my favorite folk/rock artists for 2017 who will be featured on the next M.O.M. post…

Happy Listening, Kati