By Sarah Tachau<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the chilly evening of October 4th, I, and about half of the Macalester campus, shuffled into the rugged Fine Line for folk-pop mastermind Odie Leigh\u2019s Carrier Pigeon<\/em> tour. Born and raised in Louisiana, Odie had a somewhat unconventional beginning in the industry. She began crafting music out of the competitive desire to win a bet with her friends during the early stages of the pandemic. Her final product was a recording of \u201cRonnie\u2019s Song,\u201d which went viral on Tik Tok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She continued releasing short clips of her subsequent songs \u201cCrop Circles\u201d and \u201cA Month Or Two\u201d online, soon growing a crowd of impatient fans who demanded the tunes on streaming platforms. Caught in the turbulence of growing up, I was drawn to Odie\u2019s homey finger-picking and comforting lyrics. I saw her perform at a small venue in Philadelphia during her spring 2023 tour, taking the stage solo with just her guitar, wearing some jeans and docs. At the time, her setlist consisted largely of her first EP, \u201cHow Did It Seem To You?\u201d as well as a few unreleased songs. Standing amidst couples with matching teal hair and tweens with their moms, I felt immediately at home in Odie\u2019s voice, warm like auburn leaves, and her lyrics that tugged at the heart of change, consoling the listener to \u201cgive it some time, time, time.\u201d I treasured the show for the intimacy Odie brought to the room. Naturally, when my roommate told me about the Carrier Pigeon<\/em> show, I knew we had to go. I was not expecting to be joined by several of our peers, but then again the mish-mash of folky pop that gets you absolutely winded out of longing, despair, admiration, or all three simultaneously, has its audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before Odie took the stage, her guitarist and keyboardist, Taylor Wafford, known by her stage name \u201cBlood Root,\u201d opened, performing solo for the first time that tour. Her voice demanded silence, engulfing the crowd in silky smooth notes she belted without hesitation. She sang predominantly from her 2022 album \u201cI\u2019m Not Trying to Start a Fire Anymore,\u201d crafting a sound that could only be described as a mixture of Haley Heynderickx\u2019s verses that wind effortlessly into the chorus and Angel Olsen\u2019s vast vocal range. Her bangs were an ombre into Odie\u2019s signature neon yellow, glowing under the deep blue lights. She finished off her set with a handful of unreleased songs which I begged myself to commit to memory for their skillful guitar riffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Odie, decked out in red and black tights and a zebra printed dress, ran out with the rest of her band to \u201cMy Name on a T-Shirt.\u201d A signature of her music, Odie drove the song forward with punchy strumming on her candy-apple-red electric guitar. Her drummer, Grace Goodman, picked up the beat and her bassist, Kaitlyn Gerdau, kept the rhythm alive as the audience loosened up. Holding the energy high, she sang a series of \u201cCarrier Pigeon\u201d songs back to back. Her setlist was packed with a little bit of everything. She soon swapped her electric guitar for her signature acoustic with highlighter-green strings to play her early folk hits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChutes and Ladders\u201d characterized this shift in style, as it maintained the fast paced rhythm while highlighting Odie\u2019s tight vocal control. She bordered on yodeling, howling her craving for solitude amidst romantic chaos in the chorus. Her lyrics, packed with relatable pining, and her articulation of emotion made hearing this song live a cathartic experience. She soon slowed down to the soft intro of \u201cA Month Or Two.\u201d Recorded as a solo acoustic song, \u201cA Month Or Two\u201d was backed this time by a smooth crescendo of cymbals and a second guitar humming drawn out strums. Odie\u2019s voice calmed the crowd with the outro\u2019s repetitive \u201cgive it some time.\u201d The lighting was no less than fitting, streaming down behind her in streaks like sunlight through a tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keeping up with her older, folkier tunes, Odie moved right into \u201cNine Lives.\u201d She still interspersed her newer tracks, doing so without the least bit of whiplash. As \u201cEither Way\u201d closed out, her band left the stage for several solo songs, reminiscent of her earlier tour. To my surprise, Odie played \u201cAs Sure As I\u2019m Speaking,\u201d one of her slowest tracks. She carved out moments of quiet between skippy finger picking riffs. The calm quickly broke into buzzing excitement as she tuned her acoustic down to open D, strumming the familiar notes of \u201cCrop Circles.\u201d Nearly a second into the song the crowd erupted from anticipation. Everyone knew she\u2019d play this classic, and she certainly wasn\u2019t going to give it to us early on. Odie did not need a band in the background, she carried the whole room in a sing along, driven by the shared craving for change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the Odie setlist included a series of comforting classics, she did not miss an opportunity for her crowd to mosh\u2013 in an organized manner, of course. She prefaced her upbeat \u201cSheep Song\u201d by sharing her drummer\u2019s desire for the concert to include a mosh pit, and explained the safest way to do so was for the middle of the crowd to run in a circle. And so, as she started powerfully strumming, the center of the audience began moving like a washing machine. As a bystander, I believe the mosh was a success: nobody was trampled, and people weren\u2019t too displaced from their original spots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating a tradition, Odie closed her show with \u201cTake Back,\u201d a promising tune baked with optimism in the face of loss. Similar to \u201cA Month Or Two,\u201d this track featured a warm outro, consisting of the repeated line \u201cI\u2019m gonna take back some of my time.\u201d Just as she did the first time I saw her, Odie instructed the audience to sing along with the final verses. As the song drew to a close, the room was full with strumming like steps moving forward, confident in their own rhythm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After the show Odie stuck around on stage, talking to fans and taking photos. She signed forearms, prayer handouts from that afternoon\u2019s MJO Tashlich hike, posters, and phone cases. Whether it was her choice to stay or she was simply bombarded as she waited to meet friends in the crowd is somewhat unclear, but my signed Tashlich handout looks awesome on my wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"