Jessica Misener

When a tall, redheaded supermodel opens her mouth, people pay attention. Last night, the sold-out crowd at Rockwood Music Hall looked on in reverential silence as the lovely Karen Elson beguiled them with the plaintive sounds from her debut album, The Ghost Who Walks. Backed by a band that included Jackson Smith, son of Patti Smith and husband of Meg White, on guitar and singer-songwriter Rachelle Garniez on a wistful accordion, Elson interspersed her charmingly spare love ballads with guest appearances and cover songs. Though flustered by a missing capo and misbehaving microphones, she demurely enchanted the crowd in between sips of white wine, including one lucky gentleman whom, when he appeared with a surrogate capo, Elson dubbed her "knight in shining armor." - jm