Concert Review: Stephanie Lambring at Babeville
A Buffalo Hive Spotlight Performance
By Frank Housh
Stephanie Lambring made her Buffalo debut tonight (October 8, 2024) at Babeville’s 9th Ward in a moving, hour-long set. It was a Buffalo Hive “Spotlight Performance,” which highlights artists with high artistic merit whose work may not be well known in Western New York.
Lambring is a Nashville singer and songwriter who is currently touring behind her second album, “Hypocrite,” released in April 2024. Lambring played most of its 10 tracks which take on deep and emotional issues such as body image, self-esteem, religious hypocrisy, domestic violence, and death.
For example, “Hospital Parking Lot” is a heart-rendering paean to the trauma of a dying mother, a universal experience made deeply personal by Lambring’s beautiful, serene, alto. Lambring explained that “she has a lot of stuff to work out” as she joked about the heaviness of her musical themes.
Lambring bantered with the enthusiastic audience in the basement performance space, the first of what will likely be a growing Western New York fanbase.
While you can be forgiven for not being familiar with Lambring’s music, if you listen to her voice and remain unmoved it is possible that you are dead inside.
Local folk singer Grace Stumberg opened the show with a thirty minute set that featured her powerful voice and heavy, percussive acoustic guitar.
Frank Housh is The Buffalo Hive’s Managing Editor.