Reviews
 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
It’s So Hard To Tell Who’s Going To Love You The Best
Karen Dalton
Transfiguration of Vincent
M. Ward
Muswell Hillbillies
Kinks
Christmas in the Heart
Bob Dylan
Glitter and Doom Live
Tom Waits
Let It Roll: The Best of George Harrison
George Harrison
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
Elvis Costello
Playing for Change
Songs Around the World
Another Country
Caroline Doctorow
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On the first beautiful night of this Spring season, vocalist Emily Saxe charmed her audience by presenting a comfortable variety of songs in the Allen Room, one of Manhattan’s most beautiful performance spaces. With a forty-foot high glass backdrop that affords a stunning view of the city beyond, Ms. Saxe and her polished band offered a credible variety of classic tunes from the Great American Songbook intermingled with a few original compositions. Saxe is gifted with a voice that is well suited for her choice of material, handicapped only by a slightly awkward stage presence that nonetheless adds charm and poise to her presentation. In the truest sense, Saxe is a classicist, but the safe material she chooses to perform prevents her from investing much personal risk or emotional investment into her performance.
The evening started with an original song entitled “Invitation to a Dance,” based on the somewhat obvious metaphor of life as a dance that needs to be performed with a partner. From there, she dove headlong into a handful of shopworn classics, including “Taking a Chance on Love,” “Get Happy,” and “Blue Skies.” With hundreds of versions already circulating, it’s a tall order to mine some unique emotional resonance from these classics, but Saxe finds her own niche by relying on her top-notch band. Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” was propelled with a loping backbeat that emphasized the laid-back optimism of the lyric, while Harold Arlen’s “Get Happy” was presented with a unique Country-fied twang. Guitarists Mark Goldenberg and Greg Leisz deserve special mention as exceptionally strong players, while the reliable rhythm section, anchored by bassist David Piltch, provided a bed of comfort for her straightforward vocal style.
Saxe is a focused singer with a personality that is eager to please the audience, but hampered by a reticence that betrays a lack of confidence in her presentation. Her approach is consistently safe in both style and in her choice of material. Her selection of a Tom Waits tune suggested the possibility of something edgy, but her inclination points her toward the romantic pabulum of “Rainbow Sleeves,” while recoiling from the very idea that he could compose a song called “Pasties and a G-String.” When she loosens up and allows her instinct to take over, she shines. Her version of “Walk On By” reenergized the Bacharach-David tune with a contemporary flair (and some excellent guitar work by Goldenberg), while her love for Rodgers and Hart propels her toward emotional vulnerability with “He Was Too Good for Me.” Her staying power relies on finding more songs as expressive and personally compelling as this. Her new CD is entitled “Keeping You in Mind.”
 
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