Meri Kenaz brings her heart to Grahamstown

Photo by Gabi Falanga

Meri Kenaz’s performance is a whole-body experience. As she sings, her hips sway gently from side to side, her eyes close and she lifts her chin slightly as she delicately plucks out a tune on her guitar. Her music envelops the small, cosy group in the Rhodes Student Union on Monday night. 
For a person with such a small body, Kenaz has a surprisingly deep and powerful voice. Her music is difficult to place in any one genre - a mixture of acoustic soul, South African folk, with an undertone of blues.
Her guitar work is intricate and, to add even more interest to her performance, she sings a song in Afrikaans and does some beautiful, warbling whistling in another.
Kenaz is down to earth and radiates wholesomeness. With her pretty blonde dreadlocks, natural beauty, and open, honest face, she connects with her audience in a very intimate way. She does not seem to be put off by lack of numbers, and throws herself into her performance, just as she would no doubt do if it were a much larger crowd.
Kenaz has been writing music from a young age. She played a song about young love, written when she was 14. Her stop in Grahamstown is part of her Meri Kenaz Splashy Fen Tour, but she will be back in Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival in July.
Kenaz has just finished recording her latest album, Deeper, with Peace of Eden Studios. True to Kenaz’s style, her CD is not in the usual CD box, but wrapped in a piece of fabric, with pages of beautiful drawings inside.

Published in Grocott's Mail on 21 April 2011.