The strength is in the voice
L Perry played on Sunday afternoon on the Surrey Advertiser Stage, a place where local acts and unsigned artists get a chance to play to a potentially large audience, an opportunity for much needed exposure which should be grabbed with both hands and maximized for all its worth. Sadly the impression I got from those watching is that not many felt they were seeing anything other than another singer, who they would probably forget about later in the day.
L Perry certainly has a great voice, it's just the songs were far weaker than anything else I saw on the smaller stages across the weekend. If you like the kind of easy listening pop that might make it's way onto a Texas album as filler then this may have been up your street.
The music was polished, but given that L Perry was singing to a backing tape it shouldn't be anything less. There were some interesting percussion and string arrangements but nothing earth shattering.
Given that there was no backing band, all that was there to be looked at was the singer, who didn't give much of a performance in terms of movement. You could argue this was down to lack of experience, although her myspace site suggests she's been recording since 2000, or that her relaxed musical style isn't suited to much energy, but there wasn't much of a stage presence on show.
Granted it's impossible to compare like with like across the broad spectrum of acts on offer at a festival like Guilfest, but it's not unreasonable to say there were more impressive ne person acts on the same stage. If you were to consider her material on it's own, maybe hearing it on the net, then the fact that she produces most aspects of the music deserves credit, but on the live stage there certainly wasn't much to get excited about.