It didn't matter that she played to a crowd of 225, slightly more than a half-full house at the Capitol Theater in Clearwater — Laura Izibor comported herself as a star Saturday night. She danced, she strutted, she belted out her neo-soul tunes with thorough conviction. And she smiled. Beamed, actually. The 22-year-old Irish artist displayed an easy charisma during her Bay area debut, part of her first American tour. She told stories (in an adorable brogue) to set up the tunes, offered profuse thanks after each, and, it's safe to say, charmed everyone in the audience. [Photo by Jeff O'Kelley.]

Like Corinne Bailey Rae, Alicia Keys and artist of that ilk, Izibor — the Dublin-bred daughter of an Irish mother and Nigerian father — makes music that blends contemporary R&B stylings with old-school principles of songcraft and musicianship.

Izibor was backed by a versatile quartet — drummer, bassist, keyboardist and trumpeter — and played her own keyboard for about half the show. After the band warmed up with a groove, she took the stage with supreme exuberance, clad in a leopard print top and black latex pants that looked to be sprayed on. Her trademark big Afro was accentuated by a headband.

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...