Sing My Sister Sing

I am a huge fan of Maureen McGovern and have posted of her work a few times here on the blog. I think many would write her off as a jazz entity, but for any that have seen her in concert, she is just as much cabaret. Even when performing in a concert hall with a full orchestra, she brings an intimacy to a crowd of hundreds. We need to get her booked into a true cabaret venue here in the Twin Cities and behold the great wonder she brings to the stage.

I am pleased to find that she is still pursuing new outlets that are authentically her. I am just reading of her new show with the above title. It is an evening work that celebrates the song cycles of powerful women who wrote powerful pieces of music that have transcended a century now. Most are contemporaries that are familiar like Carole King, Laura Nyro, Phoebe Snow, Melissa Manchester and Annie Lennox. But she also speaks to earlier pioneers like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and even women from the 1800's Americana songbook like Julia Ward Howe who wrote Battle Hymn of the Republic.

The article quotes "I wanted to really pay tribute to women singer-songwriters because they write very intimately and powerfully,” she says. “It’s a different take on writing and a very rich chapter of the Great American Songbook. This is something I’ve really been wanting to do for a long time.” Where she really speaks to our cabaret audiences - "There are plenty of people who can sing whatever it is that’s on the radio today,” she says. “I’m a storyteller, I want people to be moved by the music, I want people to listen to the music.”

I am hoping this concert is recorded on either disc or for PBS as was her last endeavor - the Long and Winding Road which was a spectacular journey on the political songs of the 1970s.