Acclaimed songstress turns her attention towards America for bulk of biographical opus
6/10
The opening song on this album, the title track as it goes, tells a tale. The Stockport part of the song relates to the part-Czech, part-German, part-English chansonierre's upbringing, while the Memphis bit hints at the soulful make-up of this, her umpteenth studio album since the mid '80s. Life has, as the song states, been quite a journey.
Revered for her radical reworkings of jazz, blues and rock standards, Jungr is also an accomplished songwriter in her own right and has issued a veritable pile of quality recordings, most notably with Michael Parker on the 1988 set Off The Peg (for Billy Bragg's Utility label) and a handful of solo efforts for esteemed label Linn Records, chiefly throughout the last decade. Vocally, she's not unlike Mary Margaret O'Hara, Helen Watson or Joni Mitchell in small measures - a fragile, wavering songbird with a hint of strength and mystery, yet an internationally-renowned artist who remains as much a secret as that undiscovered cabaret bar she might be headlining every week.
But the grandeur of Stockport to Memphis, and indeed her other self-penned songs, suggest that cabaret bars have been the last thing on Barb's mind during her formative years. Not for her a cheap ten-buck hall full of chattering businessmen - she's got blues, soul and harmony on her mind and that don't come cheap or from Cheshire. While there's only one true American soul-classic covered here (the fabulous Sam Cooke number, Change Is Gonna Come), Jungr's ability to lay warmth across most of these familiar colonial songs is arguably up there with the original songwriters. Neil Young's Old Man is transformed into a jazz standard, while Dylan's Lay Lady Lay is given the full hammond-led gospel treatment. But the centrepiece here is her melancholic reading of The Waterboy's Fisherman's Blues, a song that's already a classic before she's even started. Here she slows it right down, dresses it with piano and strings and keeps it simple for the most part. I'm sure Mike Scott would doff his cap to Jungr for this effort, even if the histrionics take over the song a little bit towards the end.
However, despite these plus-points (many inclusions here have been a staple of her live shows for some time), the album tends to stall after the Dylan song with perhaps a few own songs too many, maybe even too much of that torch-song cabaret style, evident on her own compositions. Although the closing covers by Hank Williams (Lost On The River) and Tom Waits (Way Down in the Hole) are delivered without too much of the bluster that tarnishes other songs on here, too much of Stockport to Memphis shouts when it should be softly-spoken. Still, if you like that piano-bar style, good songs and an otherwise unique singer at the helm, you'll be champing at the bit for Barb's bluesy lungs.
Out 22nd October 2012
For further information about live concerts by Barb Jungr, head to Allgigs here
6/10
Revered for her radical reworkings of jazz, blues and rock standards, Jungr is also an accomplished songwriter in her own right and has issued a veritable pile of quality recordings, most notably with Michael Parker on the 1988 set Off The Peg (for Billy Bragg's Utility label) and a handful of solo efforts for esteemed label Linn Records, chiefly throughout the last decade. Vocally, she's not unlike Mary Margaret O'Hara, Helen Watson or Joni Mitchell in small measures - a fragile, wavering songbird with a hint of strength and mystery, yet an internationally-renowned artist who remains as much a secret as that undiscovered cabaret bar she might be headlining every week.
But the grandeur of Stockport to Memphis, and indeed her other self-penned songs, suggest that cabaret bars have been the last thing on Barb's mind during her formative years. Not for her a cheap ten-buck hall full of chattering businessmen - she's got blues, soul and harmony on her mind and that don't come cheap or from Cheshire. While there's only one true American soul-classic covered here (the fabulous Sam Cooke number, Change Is Gonna Come), Jungr's ability to lay warmth across most of these familiar colonial songs is arguably up there with the original songwriters. Neil Young's Old Man is transformed into a jazz standard, while Dylan's Lay Lady Lay is given the full hammond-led gospel treatment. But the centrepiece here is her melancholic reading of The Waterboy's Fisherman's Blues, a song that's already a classic before she's even started. Here she slows it right down, dresses it with piano and strings and keeps it simple for the most part. I'm sure Mike Scott would doff his cap to Jungr for this effort, even if the histrionics take over the song a little bit towards the end.
However, despite these plus-points (many inclusions here have been a staple of her live shows for some time), the album tends to stall after the Dylan song with perhaps a few own songs too many, maybe even too much of that torch-song cabaret style, evident on her own compositions. Although the closing covers by Hank Williams (Lost On The River) and Tom Waits (Way Down in the Hole) are delivered without too much of the bluster that tarnishes other songs on here, too much of Stockport to Memphis shouts when it should be softly-spoken. Still, if you like that piano-bar style, good songs and an otherwise unique singer at the helm, you'll be champing at the bit for Barb's bluesy lungs.
Out 22nd October 2012
For further information about live concerts by Barb Jungr, head to Allgigs here