The many sides of Nataly Dawn: From YouTube and Pomplamoose to a new solo album

Do you know Nataly Dawn? It’s quite likely you have heard her voice or her music. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she earned many admirers and rather large audience on YouTube – 380 million views over the past decade – for being the front person of Pomplamoose, a collection of musician friends who beat back the Covid blues with cover versions of the most unlikely array of tunes, from ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ to ’50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’. A frequent reaction to these songs, as well as the mash-ups that plunge ‘Every Breath You Take’ into The Proclaimers’ ‘I would walk 500 miles’, is for people to smile and smile. The performances – Dawn’s voice, light and reflective – is impeccable and disciplined, with most of the videos being recorded live. But for all the care and attention, they are invariably happy vehicles to take listeners outside of themselves and that was particularly true during such grey-etched times. (One of the funniest, is a rather hammy version of ‘Mr Blue Sky’ by Jeff Lynne and ELO) One also senses the band were enjoying it all too. Often, they would play with a grin spread ear to ear, or a giggle of pleasure only muffled with some effort. But there has always been a more sombre, serious and weighted sound to Dawn, and that what I see during a recent gig in Seattle. Accompanied by guitarist John Schroeder, and Ross Garren on vibraphone and harmonicas, Dawn works through the bulk of a recently-released album, Gardenview, a collection of delicate, originally composed folk songs that somehow sound timeless.