Roberta Donnay: “What’s Your Story”

Filed under: Music Reviews   

(Rainforest Records)

One-time Grammy nominee Donnay possesses a bee-stung soprano with a Ricki Lee Jones sense of devil-may-care that isn’t just art-school playacting. After 20 years of kicking around with such big shots as Huey Lewis and Neil Young, she returns to the standards with this one, possibly because her local espresso filling station didn’t have anything this appropriately unobtrusive. Her skeleton-crew backup consists of piano (Eric Reed), drum and bass, saxophonist Dave Ellis chiming in on a few tracks. The abridged tick-tock here begins with a bloozy “What’s Your Story Morning Glory” carried aloft by Donnay’s breezy sass, followed later by a mildly countrified rendition of “Put It Where You Want It.” It’s not all Starbucks-panhandling, as demonstrated by her bedroom-haired, torchy take on “Small Day Tomorrow,” in which Reed goes off on an extended lounge-lizard tangent.

Posted on April 5th, 2007.

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