[Clive]
The woman is on a roll right now. It’s hard to describe the music of Chicago singer-pianist Patricia Barber. Maybe Diana Krall meets Joni Mitchell comes close. I posted "Gotcha" on my own site not long ago. Apologies if you’ve heard it before; I really can’t resist sharing it with a wider audience. (Try to ignore the chat at the start and in the middle.)
Barber’s latest album, "Mythologies" (inspired by Ovid, no less) is my favourite release of the past year. If you’ve never heard her before, however, her previous CD, "Live: A Fortnight in France", is an even better place to start. As you can see from her fascinating travel diary, she’s been in Russia this month. Before that, she and her musicians got robbed on the train to Amsterdam: "The heist was brilliantly executed, like a magic show." Can’t imagine that happening to the likes of J-Lo. (Does she even know what a train looks like?)
The Dish 