While the music world battles with AI artists creeping into the charts and the radio stations, it is reassuring to know that real musicians playing real music will never go out of style. As good as an algorithm can create something, it will never have soul. But over here in the real world, Sari Schorr has it ingrained into her very DNA.
Sari Schorr
The Lexington, London – 29 September 2026
Words And Photography: Paul Monkhouse
Launching her forthcoming album Running Wild with an intimate gig upstairs at The Lexington, this was the perfect setting to see an artist who has built her reputation not just on her extraordinary vocals but also her way of making everyone feel like family.
Given that the new opus is the best of her career, she has plenty to smile about, and it is probably not long before she makes the leap to the stages of Eventim Apollo and the Royal Albert Hall. Such is her upward trajectory.
Hitting the ground running, Mr. In The Middle is a strident opener, no guts no glory soul power that sets out her stall for the evening and leads straight into a stomping Running Wild, barely pausing for breath.
Schorr is beaming. The weight of the studio and one album she refused to put out in favour of this new one is now old news, the freedom of the road and the chance to play songs she is proud of giving a tangible air of release that lifts things just a little higher.
Tuesday night may not be the most rock ‘n’ roll evening of the week, but that matters little as the singer and her band are seemingly incapable of giving anything less than blood, sweat and tears, everything laid out on the stage.
It is this commitment to the cause that brings everything to bone-deep life, for this touring band the choice of the behatted Ash Wilson on guitar is a masterstroke, his quicksilver riffs and ability to make the guitar talk brings to mind Rory Gallagher at his finest.
On keys, Carl Hudson is no slouch either, his solos adding flavour but avoiding all the unnecessary frills that drift into free jazz territory that some are guilty of.
The Stonesy strut of Monday Morning gives drummer Russ Parker and bass player Carl Stanbridge the opportunity to lay down canyon-deep grooves, but the ensemble are more than capable of toning things down to a delicate touch with the touching Man On Fire, a song Schorr wrote about her father.
There is also a touch of Gospel in the slowly building King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll, Schorr’s honey bourbon vocals enough to make the angels weep and sinners get baptised as it grows and grows, the layers and tension building.
There is an easy tight-but-loose feel in the outfit’s playing that gives each number extra life and swing, but when they aim they hit the target every time, Wilson’s phenomenal solo during Better Day unleashing something primal in the six-stringer.
Along with the Steve Marriott feel to ballad Finding My Way, another peak was hit when travelling troubadour Marco Cinelli joined the party on an impromptu run through of Love The One You’re With, the audience happily embracing the chance to sing along.
Valentina could have been written for Tina Turner at her fruity and fabulous height drove like a freight train, but cooling things down again, the delicate gossamer of piano ballad Ordinary Life shimmered, the vocals full of a quiet passion and understanding.
Given her talent and the way she can perfectly craft and convey a story, it did not matter whether the pace of the material was fast or slow. The warmth and tenderness generated by Schorr were life-affirming.
Few artists can leave their audiences practically floating out of a venue, but this New Yorker managed it with ease once again.
A very good and pure soul, the world is a better place with her and her music in it, and this was a night when Sari Schorr displayed exactly why we need that human touch.
Sari Schorr will release Running Wild via Provogue Records / Artone Label Group on 9 October 2026 in Europe and 30 October 2026 in the USA. The album features co-producers Jamie Walker on guitar and bass and Luke Paget on drums, alongside acclaimed keyboard player Bennett Holland. Pre-orders are available from lnk.to/sarischorr.
