Alluding to the late Lowell George, leader of the legendary Little Feat in the ’70s, Inara George apologized for not playing one of her father’s songs. “It’s not on the brain,” she said, “and if you know me, you know, if it isn’t on the brain, it isn’t on the brain.”
Instead, she played, “Release Me,” written for her mother, about Lowell, who passed away in 1979, when Inara was just 4 years old. In a night of tender moments in her recent performance at Jammin’ Java, this was perhaps the most tender.
At Jammin’ Java on June 17, George divided her set into three sections, reflecting different aspects of her career, which spans from folk-pop to Jazz and Tropicalia. She started with a few songs from her solo career as a singer-songwriter, “Right as Wrong”; “Tusker 4,” which she “wrote for my friend who experienced a loss”; and “Slow Dance.” The middle segment reflected her most recent release, this year’s Songs of Douglass & Littell, covering songs written by her longtime friends Philip Littell and Eliot Douglass, who plays keys in her band: “Tired Butterfly,” La Lune S’en Va” (“The Moon Is Leaving”), “Ice Cream In Bed,” and “The Well.”
Watch the official music video for “The Well” by Inara George in a Daedelus remix featuring Israel Storm on YouTube:
Before doing some songs from The Bird and the Bee (her duo project with Greg Kurstin), Inara sang a couple more from her solo work, the sultry “Mistress” and “Space Crone.” “Space Crone” is my favorite of her songs, reaching deeply into my nerdy, neurodivergent little goblin heart. The legendary science-fiction and fantasy writer (though that undersells the scope of her work) Ursula Le Guin’s essay, “The Space Crown,” published in 1976, argues that, as Inara put it, when the aliens show up, we don’t want to send some juiced up meathead to meet them (I may have added some color here). Rather, you want to send the old woman who’s spent her life working “the counter at Target because she’s seen some shit.” (The essay appears in her Le Guin’s posthumous, same-titled, collection of essays about gender. For the real heads, it was also published in her 1989 collection, Dancing at the Edge of the World. I hope you enjoy Always Coming Home, Inara!)
That one hit hard, especially followed by “Release Me” and “Preparedness” before moving into her work from The Bird and the Bee. She sang “Again and Again,” introducing it as the first song the pair wrote, which was strange, “because it kind of turned out to be our biggest song.” She was joined by her daughter Lorelei for “The Races,” followed by “The Polite Dance Song,” then a Douglass and Littell song, “New Blues.”
George introduced “Fool’s Work,” which she played solo on acoustic guitar, as “a song from my first album” (2005’s All Rise.) She finished her with another Douglass and Littell song, “Tiny Girl.”
Before George and her band took the stage, local singer-songwriter Lena Traynham played an opening set. “20 Somethin'” is one she doesn’t “play at every show.” She was joined by Rob Mays of Milo in the Doldrums to cover Billy Joel’s “Vienna,” and she finished with “Tighropes.” I hadn’t seen Traynham before; she’s a really promising young talent who’s just getting started with her career.
Sonically, George’s music is different from most of what I listen to. The throughline is more lyrical, where she hits me in my happy spots. She’s also an amazing singer, gifted with a gorgeous, alto voice, and excellent phrasing, and she was in top form in Vienna last week. This week had been stressful after I took an errant shot to the head last Saturday, and George’s music was a soothing balm.
Here are some photos of Inara George performing live at Jammin’ Java on June 17, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Steve Satzberg.
Here are some photos of Lena Traynham performing live at Jammin’ Java on June 17, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Steve Satzberg.
