Charlotte Bumgarner: “Promise” EP Release Show
LowDown
Tulsa
Aug. 16, 2024
For a singer-songwriter whose songs feature on a Spotify playlist named “broken love songs to feed your misery,” Charlotte Bumgarner’s music inspires a surprising amount of joy when heard live. On stage, decked out in pink bows and surrounded by floral arrangements, Bumgarner is much more fun than the Boygenius-adjacent vibe of her recorded songs — a contrast that was especially apparent at the recent release show for her new EP, “Promise.”
An opening set from Ramsey Thornton revealed a flexible and capable guitarist and singer, with a distinctive style that blends finger-picking folk and bleeding-heart emo. LowDown’s sound system gave him a hurdle early on, with feedback roaring through the soft notes of his first song, but once the issues were resolved, he gave a great show.
Bumgarner came out to rave applause and rapt attention. The venue, packed as it was, gave her the silence she needed to make the highs and lows of her music felt. The crowd was respectful and quiet in the soft moments (and there are many) and hooted and hollered in the raucous parts (there are definitely a few).
This kind of crowd response isn’t a guarantee. The last time I saw Bumgarner was at Mercury Lounge, during one of the Tulsa Creative Engine showcases. With several different bands and several different types of music on the bill, the crowd was about half-present and half-not. Groups congregated at the front and back, the stage group gifting a reverent silence, the ones in the back talking loudly in a way that can only be described as “Well, that’s the Merc for you.” It was obvious that a wide-ranging showcase at a dive bar wasn’t the right place for Bumgarner, whose hushed voice gets drowned out in a setting like that.
Such was not the case with the release show at LowDown. Still in her early 20s, Bumgarner has a ways to go in terms of communicating with a crowd; often her shyness got in the way of real banter, but her songwriting chops carried the show anyway. While “Never Say” is the star single from the EP, it was “Bleeding Heart” that came through with the most intensity. The pounding instruments (from backing band Olivia McGraw on violin, Matt Magerkurth on bass, Ramsey Thornton on drums, Muskrat Jones on pedal steel, and Max Helmerich on piano) provided exactly the right backdrop for Bumgarner’s coquette-drenched anger and pathos.
It’s a testament to Bumgarner’s talent as a songwriter and performer that I left LowDown feeling excited and happy, filled with the possibility of songwriting as a medium to compress one’s joys and sorrows into. What fuels her music might be sad but I think, for her, communicating that sadness is joyful. I suppose any misery, if wrapped with a pink bow, can be lovely in its own way.
Next for Z.B. Reeves: Reggie Watts at the Blue Whale Comedy Festival, August 24
