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Written by Amanda Pelle Thursday, 20 September 2007 02:14

Standing barefoot on the stage of a crowded room, Lenker addresses the audience with a demure yet unapologetic pout on her lips.

Quite accomplished in her youth, 16-year-old AdriAnne Lenker takes commanding ownership of her music. Lenker, whose childhood was spent in the influence of strict religious governing and academic prosperity, has spent her scant few years on earth attempting to discover herself in an uncommon manner. This beautiful young woman boasts a background of singing, modeling, and acting. Additionally, her personality is intensified by her physical strength as a black-belt expert of karate, and her intellectual strength through her precocious collegiate endeavors. This breadth of career and life experience defines Lenker as a true Renaissance Woman of the Arts. Her experiences are a delightfully mature supplement to the rich lyrics of the music she performs in her album Live at the Southern.

The album's supplemental DVD provokes a greater understanding of Lenker's intellectual capacity as it inundates her youthful energy. Standing barefoot on the stage of a crowded room, Lenker addresses the audience with a demure yet unapologetic pout on her lips. Those same sultry lips part to introduce "Dig Down," and the room is filled by an astonishingly big voice coming from a modest young woman.

Lenker, whose upbringing has, in many ways shaped her artistic ability, proves to be a much more appropriate role model for young women than many emerging artists. Her vocals project strength, her lyrics independence. Her music is undeniably empowering to a generation of exploratory youth. She inspires physical and intellectual strength and bravery, and her music encourages life experience. It is the spirit and essence of the search for sense of self and truth and hope that makes Lenker's lyrics so beguiling.

Lenker is talented at the guitar, particularly in "The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter," an instrumental piece by William Ackerman. The flow of her fingers in this piece provides a soft sense of relief from the heavy words of her lyrics. With a talented entourage and a raspy voice, Lenker's music falls into a not quite classifiable hybrid of folk-rock with hints of jazz and country. Lenker's influences range from Ella Fitzgerald to Sheryl Crow and Leigh Nash; however, her sound is a modern, unique blend of old and new. Her lyrics are smart and advisable in "Don't Talk So Much," as she vocalizes her annoyance with egotism in a blatant request: "Shut up will you/ before you speak."

However, while music is one of Lenker's many artistic modes of communication with the world, it is perhaps not her calling. It might be the simulated poetry-reading method by which she introduces her music, or the too-eager attempts to engage the audience. Though perhaps more unsettling than these minor quirks is that, in making her music modern, Lenker has a tendency to inject an eccentric lament into the stream of her vocals. This is a feat approached cautiously by musical artists, and if done well, it is memorable and distinctive; if done poorly, however, it is crippling to the musician's style and effort. While vocals distinguish Lenker remarkably, they are simultaneously her musical disintegration.

Lenker states in "Imperfection" that, "Without our every little flaw/ you wouldn't mean anything to me at all." This statement rings perfectly true in her music. Lenker is the kind of artist one loves for her imperfections. B- | Amanda Pelle

RIYL: The Last Town Chorus, Sixpence None the Richer, Anna Nalick, Brandi Carlile