Beautiful Paula Cole Superstar

I was always too broke in the '90s to see Paula Cole live. My mom always told me: Better late than never! Ms. Cole and her fellahs performed at SPACE http://www.evanstonspace.com/ last night and what a show it was. Imagine a room like Makor in NYC and you'll get the idea. Nice sound. Tables. And if you were too cheap to reserve a table, then there were nice chairs to sit on. I must thank kind photographer, Evelyn for directing me to sit stage left instead of stage right. It was a much better vantage point by the piano. The guitar player reminded me a little of Colin Hay; and funny enough, it turned out he was from Australia. The drummer was from New York and both guys helped make the set sound better than the recordings. Paula Cole must have a painting in a closet somewhere that is aging since she looked the same as in the video from, "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" And her soaring vocal pyrotechnics reminded me of how Pat Monahan with that beautiful tenor voice of his, always amazes me. Cole sounded like an angel. Pitch perfect, rocker chick hair solo, fine piano playing, dancing that reminded me of Cat Power/Lisa Hannigan and human beat boxing during a show that was part singer/songwritery/jazzy/and even had a bit of classical influences. Wow. To go see for yourself, please visit her site: http://www.paulacole.com/

The Rosie Burgess Trio Rules!

Big huge thanks to Wally Rozak and Elizabeth Pratt for inviting me to see the AMAZING Rosie Burgess Trio www.facebook.com/rosieburgesstrio at Cary's Lounge http://www.caryslounge.com/ last night! And to the always hilarious, Becky Poole www.facebook.com/beckydpoole for being up for checking out the show with me!

So, imagine if Claire Danes had a pretty, little sister who played guitar and harmonica extremely well and could sing her ass off, and that would be Rosie Burgess. If you like Nellie McKay or Suzanne Vega, you may well like the talented Ms. Burgess and her fine crew...

Percussionist/backing singer, Sam Lohs and violinist, Sophie Kinston both provided the perfect musical complement to Ms. Burgess' fine collection of truly beautiful songs.

Hellah tight. One of the best live shows I've ever seen anywhere. Highly entertaining. They are currently on tour from Australia so if you want to experience the magic and you are lucky enough to be near a city where they are performing, click and get a ticket NOW! http://www.rosieburgess.com/

Dear Julia

Sometimes people ask me how Julia Cho is doing. It was always so much fun to sing and play music with her, sample lots of different food at late night joints after shows and survive more than a few frightening cab rides together in NYC! Thank you, Julia. You were and continue to always be there for me. I only hope that I can do a bit of the same... I used to include notices about her plays (and now television shows) in my electronic newsletter but I have been on a hiatus for awhile now... Here's the quick update: She is currently a staff writer for the HBO show, BIG LOVE. But she has not abandoned her playwrighting career. I saw her beautiful play, THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE at The South Coast Repertory Theater, CA in April. www.scr.org My favorite idea from the play was how one culture's definition of love was: DON'T LEAVE ME. Julia's words never cease to touch me... I saw the CBS broadcast of The Tony Awards on Sunday evening and as they were giving a presentation about The Eugene O'Neill Theater Festival, www.theoneill.org/ motion graphics of show posters flew on the screen behind the speaker. One of them was the poster for Julia's play, DURANGO. The line that stays with me from that play was the father asking, "When did I start wanting so little from life?" (Paraphrased.) Therefore, it was no surprise to learn that the incomparable Ms. Cho won The 2010 The Susan Blackburn Prize! www.blackburnprize.org/winner%202010.htm Congratulations, dear Julia! Can't wait to see what's next!