A Ukulele and Her Orange Coat

Do musicians choose their instruments, or do the instruments choose them?  This was something I was pondering whilst watching Her Orange Coat busk in Leeds recently.  A Ukulele isn’t the regular weapon of choice for high street troubadours, but in the hands of Her Orange Coat it’s remarkably effective and perfectly complements her songs.  Her Orange Coat says she specialises in sadness, but lament would be a more accurate description.  If you’ve listened to PJ Harvey sing ‘An Acre of Land’ you’ll be able to connect the dots to Her Orange Coat’s song material.

But back to the Uke.  Billie Eilish made it more popular than a holiday to Hawaii, and Taylor Swift can bang a tune out on one too.  Sometimes described as producing a ‘dainty’ sound somewhere between a mandolin and a banjo, it can do wonders for the melancholiest of tracks.  The quiet nature of the instrument (never heard one go through a distortion peddle or in to a Marshall stack) draws you in, and perhaps you pay just that bit more attention to what the singer is singing. 

Her Orange Coat is a rising star of the open mic music scene.  Her voice is more angelic than Joni Mitchell, but their songs share the same pathos.  There’s a gentleness about Her Orange Coat, reflected in her TikTok videos (click here) and she has a desire to share the stories of her life in a frank and revealing manner.  She’s totally charming and beguiling.     

And, on a sharp and frosty morning in Leeds – her coat was orange.   

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