Paula Gomez – The Cameron House – CMW 2014

Paula Gomez – The Cameron House – CMW 2014

Who: Paula Gomez
From: Ireland
Where: Cameron House
When: Tuesday May 6, 2014

TOTAL SCORE: 8.4
[starreviewmulti id=3 tpl=20]

The Crowd: Small early crowd of about 15 lucky fans

Style: Bluesy soulful folk

Technicalities: Paula started on time.  As a solo acoustic artist there wasn’t much to complain about, but there was an odd low hum in the P.A.

Memorable Song/Moment:  Paula stopped to tune her guitar “I just got my new tuner and I don’t really understand it.. thanks again very much everybody”

Sex Appeal/Image: A beautiful young woman with an Irish/Spanish accent, is that not the best combination of accents?

Comments: Paula Gomez has released a series of demos since 2010 with increasing production and band-mates along the way.  However, her recordings as perfect as they are do not even come close to capturing her essence.   There seems to be a dedicated team of professionals behind her who are hell bent on getting that perfect pop sound but Paula Gomez is best experienced raw and solo.   There is a Celine Dion meets Sarah Vaughn element that can’t be ignored and a silky texture to her voice that has a character all of it’s own. She doesn’t need any pop or over production, Paula raw is simply what needs to be.

After a few shout outs to the other acts of the night most notably the great Buddy Black, Paula went on to play her final song of the night ” Lies” and it was at this moment that I knew we had discovered a gem.

While mainstream media outlets report on the everyday sounds we hear on radio to increase their self perpetual business, we at The Scene try to find at-least one “diamond in the rough” at each festal that makes its all worth while.   Paula Gomez was artist one, on day one and was surprisingly that.  While I would like to hear more vocal jumping turns and falsetto and precise guitar work, Paula has a pure talent that is rarely experienced and in such a live setting dynamic, she was the diamond that we were looking for.

Paula will play the KALEIDOSCOPE JAMBOREE May 10th in Toronto, before heading back to Ireland.

Photos: Stephanie Tran
Review: Darrell Shelley

THE SCENe