The problem with the singer-songwriter genre is that these introvert/extroverts are too often more of the former and less of the latter. Huh? Okay, let’s try that again. These folks (singer-songwriters) who turn their often intensely personal sagas (introvert) into little acoustic snippets and then decide to share that insight with an audience (extrovert) tend to be a bit shy and unanimated on stage. That’s fine if you’re Bob Dylan, but hey, there’s only one (and his power is so great that some people even like his new Christmas record).
The point is that many music fans from the casual to the manic, we’re probably the latter, (get this former/latter thing yet?) get tired of the singer-songwriter mold because too often it’s somebody with an oversized Gibson acoustic, sitting on a stool, lamenting some episode from their youth or upbringing. The intro to the song often goes something like this, “This is a song about growing up in _______.” And they take themselves so damn seriously. Ugh, dull.
That’s where Rebecca Loebe is different. She can entertain and make a joke. Yes the songs are sometimes autobiographical and no she’s not taking on Dylan’s turf, like the civil rights movement (“Blowin’ in the Wind”) or unjust imprisonment (“Hurricane”), but she can write a nifty tune and delivers it in a way that keeps you engaged.
She won us over in the Atlanta Room at Smith’s Olde Bar about a year ago with her choice of cover tune and quite funny intro. She started off with some background about her grandmother being a pioneer woman lawyer and principal player at the creation of the Dept. of Health and Human Services in the 60s (we don’t know if that’s true or not). Typical singer-songwriter intro, eh? But she wasn’t done. She then told us that when she was a little girl her grandmother would sing this next song to her before she went to bed. Her next words, the first lines of the song, were “Let’s get lost tonight/you can be my black Kate Moss tonight/play secretary/I’m the boss tonight…” Ha! Check out her album version of Kanye’s urban anthem below.
If you can handle hearing about a little heartbreak from a little gal with a big dreadnought and a real performer’s sense then check out Rebecca at Eddie’s this Saturday night.
by Gunter Grass. All are welcome.
