In this column, I check in on an important new album from singer/songwriter/actor D.C. Anderson. Plus, I report on three recent club shows, all of which just happen to be directed by the gifted (and understandably ubiquitous) Lina Koutrakos. It’s hard for outsiders to tell exactly what role any director plays in a cabaret show’s formula. But my sense is that one thing Koutrakos does is tap into what’s special about each of the performers she works with, helping them take that quality to the hilt.

Anyway, here goes….

D.C. Anderson’s newest album “harnesses not only hope but also the thorny wisdom he’s gathered over the decades.”

I’ll be candid. D.C. Anderson—troubadour, storyteller, and actor—writes and performs songs of a sort that I respect but haven’t always fully appreciated. As his new album, Believe, Breathe, and Sing, bountifully demonstrates, Anderson’s own songs, as well as the songs of others that he performs, tend to be intensely felt and achingly rendered: centered on love, loss, and the joys and burdens of being alive and aware. These sorts of folk-inflected songs—whether straightforward or enigmatic—ask the listener to tune in fully and contemplate matters (often grave matters) in ways that are not always easy or comfortable. Such songs benefit from repeated listenings, just as any serious, thoughtful poem benefits from multiple readings. I was happy to at least scratch the surface of these songs, which need to be taken in with both head and heart.

This is a big, juicy album of songs—19 tracks in all. I’m intrigued by the diversity in the selections’ authorship/composership. Anderson includes songs he wrote on his own, songs by others, and songs he collaborated on with others. Sometimes these collaborations have had him setting another person’s lyric to music while, for others, he has supplied the words for a composer.

Many of the songs have narratives, whether they outwardly tell a story or imply one. “Whiskey Blues” (Jahn Sood) is a cry of pain from an alcohol-addicted man, full of regret about the woman he loves and has hurt. (“I don’t deserve you, but I beg you, don’t go.”) “Love Song to a Friend” (lyric by Anderson, music by Robert Sprayberry) is a gay man’s contemplation of a love that could never flourish, apparently because of the beloved’s adherence to religious dogma. Full of affection but also showing flickers of dismay, the song’s protagonist contemplates what his now deceased friend’s reaction would be upon discovering that, in the afterlife, gay people thrive in paradise. One of the album’s most hauntingly sad yet beautiful songs is “Other Mother” (lyric by Anderson, music by Michele Brourman), told from the perspective of a foster parent who takes in a young boy who hasn’t yet figured out the truth about his birth mother.

Not all of the songs are pensive and dark. “Fish Fry and Guava Pie” is a playful reverie on an upcoming seaside feast. Songwriter (and bass, ukulele, and shaker player) Ritt Henn contributes some fittingly delicious vocal harmonizing here. Bryce Kulak’s “Pelican” takes on the outlandish dreamscape of a Eugene Ionesco play or an M.C. Escher drawing, seasoned with wordplay that brings to mind the whimsical lyrics of E.Y. Harburg.

But the song that made the biggest impression on me was the prescient “Twenty Twenty Five” (lyric by Anderson, music by Luke Wygodny), which seems to have anticipated this month’s general election with words that are chilling yet full of bravery and determination:

The future of the human race / Depends on us, the fears we face.  / We set aside our hurt, our rage, / To harness hope and turn the page.

In Believe, Breathe and Sing, Anderson harnesses not only hope but also the thorny wisdom he’s gathered over the decades.

“Believe, Breathe and Sing. ” LML Music (2024). Produced by D.C. Anderson.

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Cabaretgoers, welcome to Koutrakos Country!

For Audrey Appleby, life itself, is a seduction

The Lina Koutrakos–directed Life: a Seduction Tour (at Pangea) was a very personal show from Audrey Appleby, an artist who works in the long tradition of confessional singer-songwriters. Poised and self-assured—with a voice not huge but definitely hardy—Appleby delivered songs mostly of her own creation (or co-creation). But she gave us a few numbers from other songwriters as well. She sang in multiple languages, with most songs providing an international flavor (she seems especially drawn to Brazilian sounds). The “seduction tour” in the show’s title, she explained early on, encompasses not just seduction by a lover: She claimed to have been ravished by all manner of people, places, and things. Her lyrics were full of imagistic, sensual language: she sang of “lemon meringue skies, “butterfly lashes, and dark stars that “left my heart reeling into the blue.” Her patter was also filled with pictures from her memory. Setting up the song “Miami Mosaic,” she spoke of striding bravely down a beach at age three, wearing a blue tutu.

In a central part of the program, Appleby shared the story of her relationship with her late husband, Jim. “Beyond the Curtain” (music by Sean Harkness) told of how Jim would leave her club shows for the bar, stationing himself “beyond the curtain” while Audrey presented material onstage that seemed to him to reveal too much about the couple’s relationship. The “Jim” sequence, not surprisingly, turned darker as we learned of his terminal illness. The most intense number in this sequence (and one of the most effective songs in the show) was centered on the news of Jim’s dire diagnosis. The word “crush” in this song’s title, “Soul Crush,” took on multiple meanings. At song’s end, she extended the “sh” sound in the word so that it sounded like a “shushing” admonition.

In the last part of the show, Appleby sang some much happier songs, including her rousing “Ballo” (with a Spanish-language lyric by Kiara Duran). The audience responded viscerally to the performer throughout the show, and that’s putting it mildly. This was, I think, the rowdiest audience I’ve ever seen at a cabaret event. Then again, Appleby’s artistry was indeed clamor-worthy.

Musicians: Daryl Kojak (piano and musical direction), Sean Harkness (guitar), Sean Conly (bass), Jack Bashkow (trumpet and flute), Dan Aran (drums and percussion).

Presented at Pangea, 178 2nd Ave., NYC, November 2, 2024.

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A milestone annniversary for Sue Matsuki and Gregory Toroian

Singer Sue Matsuki and pianist/musical director Gregory Toroian have now been collaborating for three decades. Their recent Koutrakos-directed presentation at Don’t Tell Mama, Reservations for Two, marked the milestone anniversary in style. The program was built around songs famously performed by other male/female duos, from Rosemary Clooney & Bing Crosby to Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga. Its big middle section was devoted to Las Vegas singing teams (Keely Smith & Louis Prima, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé, Jackie Cain & Roy Krall, etc.). The evening was loose and fun, with some impromptu teasing banter between the two performers.

The show opened with some unapologetically loungey ballads, while the up-tempo Steve & Eydie favorite “This Could Be the Start of Something Big” (Steve Allen) was, ironically, one of the last tunes heard in the set. Perhaps starting with Allen’s classic “beginnings” song would have been too on the nose, but I do think at least one zippier number at or near the top of the show would have been a good idea. In any case, the show proved endearing, with plenty of frisky vocal harmonizing and songs presented with clever countermelodies. Among my particular favorites were the Jackie & Roy selections, including Rodgers & Hart’s “Mountain Greenery,” which featured the duo singing scatted countermelodies, and ’“Say ‘Cheese’” (Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolff), a long neglected gem with comedic facets. I would certainly not say no to an entire evening of Sue & Gregory celebrating Jackie & Roy.

In shows for which he plays and performs music-director chores, the suave, talented Toroian will chime in with effective back-up vocals or will duet on a number or two. But, in my experience, he has seldom been seen front and center. So, it was especially gratifying to see him get more spotlight time as a singer in this show.

Musicians: Torioan (piano), Skip Ward (bass), David Silliman (drums). Special guest singer: Kati Neiheisel (teaming up with Matsuki for a rendition of the famous Garland/Streisand “Happy” duet).

Presented at Don’t Tell Mama, 343 W. 46th St., NYC, November 8, 2024.

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Diane D’Angelo and her cinematic song selections

Selecting a novel movie-music theme, Diane D’Angelo worked with Koutrakos to create Closing Credits (The Green Room 42), a fun-filled show built around themes from motion pictures that play as the end credits roll. The program was actually quite diverse, although the singer and director made a point of celebrating songs from movies that contemporary audiences would be familiar with. So, songs from the first half of the twentieth century were virtually absent. There was Harry Warren and Mack Gordon’s “You’ll Never Know,” which first appeared in 1943’s Hello, Frisco, Hello (winning a “Best Song” Oscar), but D’Angelo concentrated on the song’s repurposing in the much-better-recalled 2017 film The Shape of Water. Also, she wasn’t afraid to take some liberties with her “closing credits” conceit. Nit-pickers could point out, for instance, that her encore number, “Moon River” (Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer), is played over the opening credits and is sung by Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly partway through 1962’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s and that, although the theme is played again in the concluding scene, the film actually has no “closing credits” to speak of, other than a “The End” frame. But nit-pickers can chill: “Moon River” was the perfect choice for D’Angelo’s closing song.

D’Angelo has a warm, welcoming affect, and her voice seems to gravitate toward songs that are big, bright, glamorous, and exciting—in short, songs that are…cinematic. Quite regularly, she would start a song slow and quiet, then turn up the volume and pace for the finish. She included the right amount of patter for a show like this, weaving some of it into the core of the songs. For instance, in the middle of her buoyant opening number, Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” from 1988’s Working Girl, she explained that she, much like the film’s protagonist played by Melanie Griffith, used to commute to Manhattan to work on Wall Street. And in the midst of her second number—Trevor Lawrence and the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited” (used in the 1982 film Summer Lovers)—she introduced band members to the audience, after which she (and they) turned the energy up several notches.

Among the evening’s highlights was a smart mashup of the title song from 1984’s Against All Odds (Phil Collins) with Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher’s “Watch Closely Now” from the 1976 A Star Is Born. I also liked the vivacious, sexy-funny take on Randy Newman’s “You Can Leave Your Hat On” (from 1997’s The Full Monty). But the audience responded most thunderingly to the performance of a pair of James Bond themes composed by John Barry: 1971’s “Diamonds Are Forever” (lyric by Don Black) and 1964’s “Goldfinger” (lyric by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse).

Musicians: Gregory Toroian (music director and piano), Skip Ward (bass), David Silliman (drums).

Presented at The Green Room 42, 570 10^th Ave., NYC, November 12, 2024.

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