Sarah Jaffe Brings Laughter to CMJ

Sarah Jaffe's music would hardly be described as "lighthearted." From her hauntingly beautiful vocals and emotional lyrics, her music digs deep, but on Friday night, the folk singer-songwriter was all laughs as she opened up her first-ever CMJ performance at Fat Baby.

"We're all Fat Babies together," she joked while tuning her guitar. "I was the fattest baby -- a nice 12-pound baby."

While she has been known to play as a solo act, she switched things up that evening and brought up a full band composed of guitarist Robert Gomez, bassist Miranda Brown and drummer Jeff Ryan, who Jaffe referred to as "the fattest baby here."

Since the group doesn't play together live all the time, the other musicians ended up following Jaffe's lead on 'Clementine' off of her debut album, 'Suburban Nature,' which gave the tune a new twist. Although it was roughly a half-hour set, Jaffe also treated everyone to songs from her 2008 EP, 'Even Born Again' including 'Black Hoax Lie' and 'Backwards/Forwards.'

With many of her friends, the show felt more like one big impromptu performance. But no matter how many people showed up that night, Jaffe was more than gracious to everyone. "I really appreciate you guys coming in the height of all the craziness and seeing us," she said before ending the night with 'Before You Go.'