Anjulie Opens for Raphael Saadiq @ the Showbox Market

If, like me, you were not entirely sure what an Anjulie was as of a few minutes ago, let me fill you in. She’s a hot Canadian singer. She owes her “exotic good looks” (quoting her website, there) to her Guyanese parents, who emigrated to Oaksville, Ontario, outside of Toronto. Like Alanis, she’s been all up in music’s grill from a young age, though her style has that throwback vibe you’ve heard in Corinne Bailey Rae‘s songs. If you’ve had the TV on recently, the chances are good you’ve heard one of her songs playing in the background; here she is on MySpace if you want to refresh your memory with a listen.

She’s opening for the very big Raphael Saadiq, who was two years old and living in Oakland when I was born in Napa. (Napa, as you know, is really just North North Oakland. That’s how we locals think of it, anyway.) Saadiq is bringing back old-school R&B (his first album was titled Instant Vintage, which is probably not the sly wine country shout-out I think it is). The critics agree, the shit is golden. No less a hotbed of R&B fandom than the New York Times calls his live show “an ostentatious throwback carried by hard-working charisma.”

• Anjulie and Raphael Saadiq play the Showbox Market tonight, November 16. Doors open at 8 p.m., and tickets are $28 plus TM fees (21+).