Amanda McBroom – Wintersong
Amanda McBroom, once more bravely going where no one has gone before, brought this year’s first holiday concert to Birdland. Yes, there were tinsel and dreidels, but also intelligence, wit, and white-knuckled hope against hope, the latter reason enough for early sharing. McBroom is in splendid voice. Authenticity and emotional shading keep the sold out venue in thrall.
“Are You Ready?”: Get the bulbs out, hang them high/Try to do it when you’re sober…she begins tongue in cheek (McBroom/Michele Brourman). Here we are again, my love, underneath a tree/Time for me to let you know/just what you mean to me…the artist continues more traditionally. Vocal is longlined, landing soft. One hand extends- open (“My Christmas Angel” with Tom Snow).
Amanda McBroom by Maryann Lopinto
An acknowledged “lapsed Methodist,” she tells us holidays are “all about the food. My favorite is nog…” Now I’m not the kind who’s fast with a line/I usually take things slow/So forgive me, my dear, if I’m presuming here/But there’s somethin’ I need to know/How do you like your eggs?… It’s irresistibly pulp-novelish. McBroom leans out to invitingly address now this man, now that. Heat rises. “Huevos!” she almost growls. A fine frittata/Maybe something hotta…? she purrs. On bass, Ritt Henn keeps time like a bobblehead. At the piano, Beth Falcone is hunched and grooving (“Eggs” McBroom/ Brourman).
Joni Mitchell’s “River” arrives vulnerable, elegiac, an open wound. Essence is mined. Piano sounds like dappled light. The club is hushed. This is not performance, it’s a wrenching share. “Mary Said No” (McBroom/Brourman) brings out the teller of tales; sacred history intuited by modern women, passed on with incantory gravitas. Phrases of “Ave Maria” float from McBroom to Falcone like bells.
“The new Harris/Waltz” (McBroom/Brourman) is just what it sounds like, an uplifting campaign song. Yesterday tasted like ashes/Now it’s milkshakes and chocolate malts/We’re all wearing mustaches/As we dance to the new Harris/Waltz…An amalgam of vulnerability and bravado, it’s warily emboldened.
Heather MacRae by Maryann Lopinto
“There’s a song that’s the epitome of what we all need now. It was recorded by my friend and guest.”
One hand lightly on the mike stand, Heather MacRae offers “Hope Floats.” The performer’s voice quivers slightly as she represents us all during these challenging times. Every breath informs lyrics. Bass is lustrously bowed. McBroom dabs her eyes (McBroom Brourman).
Ritt Henn by Alix Cohen
“I Give Up” is written and performed on guitar by Ritt Henn (with Beth Falcone). The artist’s sandpapery vocal aches. Give from the heart tenderly/Give a little time graciously/In the spirit of giving/I give up…Audience interprets Screw the tinsel/Damn the dreidel as curmudgeonly but, in fact, lyrics unexpectedly give way to: Give up the hate…the hurt…the dread…the pain…We don’t see it coming. Clever and affecting. Falcone and Henn will be at Urban Stages December 8.
A preface about our increasing homeless and “the couple who had to sleep in a stall” leads into the harrowing a capella chant-like “Baby in A Box” (McBroom). We hold our collective breath. YouTube it.
Amanda McBroom and Beth Falcone by Alix Cohen
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” emerges devotional, morphing seamlessly into “The Rose.” : Just remember in the winter/Far beneath the bitter snows/Lies the seed that with the sun’s love/In the spring becomes the rose (HW Longfellow/McBroom). The songwriter must’ve performed this hundreds of times, yet here it is freshly relevant in the grip of exhausted fear and the light of hope. We all sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (Ralph Blane/Hugh Martin), nourished and a bit less fraught than when we arrived.
A wonderful show.
Much of this material is contained on McBroom’s new CD, Wintersong, which comes out the first week in October.
Opening Photo by Maryann Lopinto
Amanda McBroom – Wintersong
MD/Piano – Beth Facone
Bass – Ritt Henn
Birdland
315 West 44th Street
