By Marilyn Lester****Poise, polish and presence are just a few of the accolades deserved by Ann Hampton Callaway in debuting her latest show, The Songbook of Linda Ronstadt. The match is a good one. Ronstadt’s immense, muli-multi award-winning career of over four decades has garnered kudos across a range of genres, from rock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera and operetta, country and folk, and mariachi. Amazingly, as Callaway pointed out in her perfectly balanced narrative, Ronstadt’s career choices were formed early on in her life, having encountered this full repertoire by age 10—either from the radio or hearing the family sing these gems in their living room. In her own multi-decade career, Callaway too has embraced several genres, principally jazz, but also pop, and now, R and R. With her opener, “Different Drum” from Ronstadt’s Stone Poneys beginnings, Callaway came out a rocking diva.
Callaway and Ronstadt also have a similar vocal range and timbre. On other rock numbers, such as “You’re No Good” and “When Will I Be Loved?” Callaway’s delivery was hard driving in the way another 60s-era diva rocker, Grace Slick, belted tunes for the Jefferson Airplane. But Callaway is no belter for the sake of it. She’s a one-woman master class in vocal dynamics and shaded presentation, hitting the highs and lows of a song in just the right places to form a dramatic arc of storytelling. On the bluesy/country side she was a font of contained power, artfully putting across the emotional intensity of “Blue Bayou” and Heart Like a Wheel,” as well as the drama of what Callaway called a #metoo precursor, “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” especially with its compelling a cappella start.
Ronstadt, as she gained traction in her career and in the music world, embraced the American Songbook in three albums with legendary arranger, Nelson Riddle. (It was Riddle who is acknowledged to have revived Frank Sinatra’s career, which was at a low in the early 1950s.) Standards are the foundation of Callaway’s career, as well as of her pianist and Music Director, Billy Stritch. Like putting on a pair of comfortable, familiar pair of old shoes, both seemed to automatically relax into “Am I Blue” and “What’s New?”
Callaway was backed by a crew of superb musicians: Martin Wind on bass, Tim Horner on drums and Bob Mann on guitar. Mann played and arranged for Ronstadt, so having a source on hand (especially with his “Somewhere Out There”) was a plus for the show (although at times the sound balance on Mann’s guitar was overpowering). Adding to the brilliance of the combo’s musicality were Stritch’s sometime vocal contributions and the fun of hearing the entire band sing backup on a number of tunes. Drummer Horner is also a violinist and his solo playing, with Callaway moving to the piano, made “Heart Like a Wheel” mesmerizing. Much of the success of the show resided in the creative arrangements of each of the numbers and the smart ordering and pacing of them. For a finale and encore, a no-holds-barred and joyously rocking “That’ll Be the Day” was followed by an intimate, cogent “Desperado,” featuring a haunting piano-only introduction before a full play out by all band members and Callaway.
Ann Hampton Callaway: The Linda Ronstadt Songbook played at Feinstein’s/54 Below on September 19-22, 2018.
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