Boomers in the Local Business Club Scene

Music To Be Boomers By

by Henry Lipput

“Carrying On”

This month I’m reviewing new albums by two women who, through their lyrics and attitude, continue and update the cabaret and folk traditions.

The cabaret singer is Sylvie Lewis, a young woman from California by way of England. She has a wonderful, pure, pre-rocknroll voice and a great way with lyrics and melodies. The songs on her album, “Tangos & Tantrums,” contain wry comments on the state of love and romance. She’s obviously been influenced by show tunes as well as torch songs.

On “By Heart,” the first song on the disc, Lewis has the clear sound and phrasing that reminds me of Terre Roche, the middle sister of the Roches. “New York” is the story of lost love and, as the lyric says, “bittersweet:” “Even though you’ve got a new love/I remember true love/and everything that happened before her.” In “When I Drink,” the song’s narrator tells of drinking to forget a romance that has ended and, with a clever turn of phrase, she sings: “When I drink it’s about you/I think.” Other highlights include “If Love Songs,” “At The Movies,” and the sad, but hopeful “Old Friends,” which is an example of how good this album is when everything comes together.

The production on a couple of songs on the CD has a marked low budget feel to them in which less works better than the attempt at more. When the arrangement is just guitar and strings as in “When I Drink,” the results are sublime—it sounds like it could be off of one of Sinatra’s late-fifties broken-heart concept albums (“One For My Baby” or something like that). But with the cheesy synth and “Rubber Ducky” riff on the otherwise fine “All His Exes,” the lack of financial resources shows. Lewis is a terrific talent, vocally and lyrically, and she deserves someone who will but their money where her mouth is.

“Martha Wainwright” is the debut album from, uh, Martha Wainwright. She comes from a musical family: her father is Loudon Wainwright III, her mother is Kate McGarrigle of the Canadian folk-singing duo the McGarrigle Sisters, and her brother is the extremely talented songbird Rufus Wainwright.

The songs on Martha’s album run the gamut from anger to heartbreak. Her voice sounds like her mother’s but the brutal honesty of some of her lyrics owes more to her father’s work. The song I can only refer to by its acronym, “BMFA” because of the language used in the actual title, is a song that she has said is about her father. On the other end of the emotional spectrum is “Don’t Forget” in which she laments that you can put on a scarf to protect you from the cold but there’s nothing available to wrap up your heart when it’s broken.

The disc is filled with lovely ballads like “Far Away,” “These Flowers,” “Don’t Forget,” and “Whither Must I Wander.” Another highlight is the gently swaying “When The Day Is Short.”

Henry Lipput is a contributing writer and an avid music fan. He can be reached at h_lipput@hotmail.com.