Bassist Spike Perkins weighs in with this review. He also took the informal live photographs that follow below. —Ed.
Former Song Dogs chanteuse Alison Young performed a pre-Saints playoff game show at the Circle Bar Saturday night, January 4, to a nice-sized crowd of friends, admirers, and fellow musicians.
Singer/songwrter Richard Bates opened for Young, then joined her onstage for her set. Bates was once a youthful Song Dogs fan who had to sneak into bars to hear his favorite band. Now, he works with blues singer Ken Schwartz as well as performing his own music. Also joining Young and Bates on stage was Tom Marron, another former Song Dog, who provided some spooky electric violin.
Bates began with an eclectic ukulele set that included a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Rock With Me,” and the standards “Nevertheless,” and “Our Love Is Here To Stay.” Moving to electric guitar, he played a nice group of pop rock originals. His writing and vocal phrasing are reminiscent of Elvis Costello, with a smoother, less strident voice.
Alison Young came up and invited violinist/vocalist Joe Darensbourg to the stage for a brief tribute to the late Phil Everly. She then launched into a set of originals, accompanying herself on ukulele and acoustic guitar.
Young has the same bell-clear voice she always had with the Dogs, but in a band heavy with songwriting talent, she contributed no material to the band’s repertoire. She has now matured into a fine songwriter, inventive in both melody and lyric.
Often, she delves into the dilemmas of being female, with wit and irony, and avoiding the common pitfalls of self-pity and political diatribe. In “Pretty Little Skeleton,” a woman feels so diminished by the overbearing, controlling man in her life, she imagines that she is wasting away. “Satellite” addresses the orbiting piece of technology that allows her to communicate with a distant lover as though it were a kindly saint looking down from above.
Though currently residing in Paris, Young is clearly not channeling Edith Piaf with her sound. But there are some nods to world music—a few more tunes in ¾ time than usual, and a lovely tango, “La Pistolera.” Hopefully Alison Young will find a way to return to the Crescent City a little more often. Her music can be found at http://alisonyoung.bandcamp.com/.
