wye oak @ cat’s cradle, originally uploaded by minervacat.

Nellie McKay — Normal as Blueberry Pie: a Tribute to Doris Day.  10/13, Verve Records.

I’ve been a fan of McKay since her 2004 debut, Get Away From Me, which the Maternal Unit sent me the first year I was living in the NC; it lived in my car for a good long time and I listened to it endlessly that first year I was living by myself.  McKay has a torchsinger voice, takes her musical aesthetics from 40’s swing culture, and combines them both with a quirky sense of humor and style all her own, and I’ve always thought she was one of the most interesting artists straddling the “new standards/jazz” and straight up pop genres right now.  Normal as Blueberry Pie is her fourth full-length (and Get Away From Me and 2006’s Pretty Little Head are actually both double-discs, so maybe this is technically her sixth?  Who knows.) and her first of material that’s not her own; it is, obviously, 14 songs made famous by Day.  I think it suffers a little from this, because while McKay’s got a killer voice, I think she’s most interesting when she’s doing things in her own style, like the plaintively creepy “Black Hills of Dakota” and the sassy, funky “Dig It”, and not straight up belting or crooning a ballad.  It’s a solidly enjoyable album with some delightfully clever moments and performances, but in my opinion it can’t hold a candle to either Get Away From Me or 2007’s Obligatory Villagers (which was in my year end top 10 in ’07), and it wouldn’t be a good introduction to McKay’s work.  Start at the beginning, and by the time you get to Normal as Blueberry Pie, you’ll be able to find the hidden pieces that make it a quirky, thoughtful tribute, instead of a vaguely inspired collection of covers.

[Nellie McKay — “Black Hills of Dakota”] 8MB, .mp3.

I’m trying to decide if I want to go see Sea Wolf and Port O’Brien tomorrow night, but I’m also old.  Has anyone seen either of them live?  Worth it? It’s a small venue with a much bigger show going on elsewhere, so I’m sort of hoping it will be devoid of hipsters even though I know the lights would suck. Opine opinions on the subject, please.

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