PERFORMING ARTS

Friday, September 21, 2007

Jacqui Naylor

Does the notion of the Gershwin brothers collaborating with the Allman Brothers sound appealing or off-putting? That question isn't a bad litmus test for anyone tempted to hear singer Jacqui Naylor in concert.

Naylor, who performed at Blues Alley on Wednesday night, specializes in "acoustic smashes" -- offbeat arrangements that feature her singing a well-known pop, jazz or rock lyric in an unusual but oddly familiar setting. During her opening set at the Georgetown club, for example, she sang "Summertime" while her trio played the Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post." Then she "smashed" a Billie Holiday-inspired rendering of "Love for Sale" with a funk beat borrowed from the Bill Withers hit "Use Me." While both performances easily could have come across as clunky or contrived, they quickly proved disarming, thanks to Naylor's considerable interpretative gifts and keyboardist-guitarist Art Khu's clever trio arrangements.

That wasn't always the case. Offering a peek at her new CD, "Smashed for the Holidays," Naylor compressed "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" with "Sweet Home Alabama." The result was cheery enough, but this is one "smash" that seems destined to join the crowded ranks of forgettable pop novelties.

Still, there was no mistaking Naylor's taste and talent. Her penchant for classic pop songs yielded sultry interpretations of "Lazybones" and "Blue Moon," and her tributes to singers Holiday and Shirley Horn were warmly evocative. With plenty of help from Khu, bassist Steve Zerlin and drummer Frank Russo, Naylor also infused original songs with a mixture of wistfulness and charm.

-- Mike Joyce

Marty Stuart

When a man in leather pants and a feathered mullet strides onto a stage adorned with lava lamps, it's usually a cue to bolt towards the nearest fire exit. Unless, of course, that man is Marty Stuart.

Sure, his sartorial taste is questionable, but the country vet's musical taste is anything but. Stuart charmed fans at the Birchmere on Wednesday, shimmying through a dynamic set of honky-tonk romps, feisty bluegrass standards, even a few plaintive ballads.

"Y'all make it feel like Friday during the middle of the week!" the 48-year-old singer announced after bopping through his own "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'." He's a fantastic entertainer, but shared the spotlight generously with His Fabulous Superlatives, a three-piece backing troupe worthy of its moniker. Guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson and bassist Brian Glenn each took solo turns at the microphone and they launched into killer three-part harmony on "Workin' on a Building." Stuart's wife, the esteemed country singer Connie Smith, also made a cameo, joining hubby for the weepy "Long Black Limousine." On top of that: some Johnny Cash ballads and a stellar mandolin solo from Stuart that fused bluegrass and blues. What's next Marty, a disco tune?

Actually, yes. Glenn let the falsetto fly during a goofy bluegrass reading of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" -- a song Stuart wanted to test-drive for a forthcoming housewarming party at Barry Gibb's house. (For those saying "Huh?": Gibb purchased Johnny Cash's old home in Hendersonville, Tenn., in 2006, which now makes him Stuart's next-door neighbor).

The disco vamp wasn't the only time Stuart raised the ghosts of '77. The righteous dueling guitar licks he traded with Vaughan throughout the set evoked a vintage Television gig at CBGB. Country, bluegrass and blues, indeed.

-- Chris Richards

Heavy Trash

Nobody says "baby" quite like Jon Spencer. And few people say it as often.

The irrepressible Spencer, a 20-year veteran of the underground rock scene, says the word like a call to arms: "BAY-uh-BAY!" Sometimes it'll be a few quick shouts of "BAY-buh" until he hits that big one, but it's always something to behold.

Spencer brought his latest band, Heavy Trash, to the Rock & Roll Hotel on Wednesday night, and while the group's souped-up rockabilly tunes were plenty pleasing, it was Spencer's antics that proved most memorable.

Spencer is best known for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, his trio that was more Elvis doing punk rock than anything having to do with the blues. There's not nearly as much shtick going on in Heavy Trash; the band is more of a straight tribute to rockabilly and the earliest rock-and-roll. "Crazy Pritty Baby" may as well be an Eddie Cochran song, and the galloping drums and walking stand-up bass lines on most songs were straight out of the 1950s. It's not hard to envision Heavy Trash being cast as the house band at a juke joint in a Coen Brothers film.

Heavy Trash followed its 40-minute set with an encore that was almost equal in length. That was when Spencer let loose, taking on the identity of some sort of rockabilly preacher. Individual songs became harder to discern and the show took on a revival feel, with Spencer leaning off the stage to shout, "This day is mine!" and "I still believe in the tooth fairy!" and "We got to get together!" And when he couldn't come up with anything else, there was always the old reliable.

"BAY-uh-BAY!"

-- David Malitz

Finntroll

If Satan held an Oktoberfest party, the house band would be Finntroll.

The group's mad mix of extreme metal and humppa -- a Finnish folk style that sounds like the inbred cousin of polka and German oompah music -- is the perfect soundtrack for throwing down brews and brats.

The Finnish sextet brought its guttural guitars to Jaxx on Wednesday -- and, amazingly, nobody in the crowd ended up a bierleichen (beer corpse). The spirited crowd bashed away the night to the speedy humppa rhythms, with mosh pits giving way to hair-swinging circles, but no blood or hops were spilled.

The devil horns salute was well represented between Finntroll's 19 songs, and there were even some audience singalongs -- if only phonetically, as vocalist Vreth growls the band's myth-and-violence-filled lyrics in Swedish, Finland's other official language.

While Finntroll is on tour to support its new CD, "Ur Jordens Djup," the band's approach to music was summed up by the performance of "Nattfodd," the title track from its 2004 album. The waltz-metal intro was punctuated by shouts of "Hey, hey!" from Vreth (and the crowd) before the song kicked into a sea-shanty swing, propelled by Trollhorn's set-to-accordion keyboards. The riffs were heavier and darker when the vocals came in, and soon the double-bass drums were flashing. Later, the tune breaks down into minor-key guitar arpeggios, and as the song slowed it felt like a couples-only number for a goth high school dance.

Finntroll's music is such a bizarre hybrid -- although two other Finnish bands, Turisas and Korpiklaani, are working along similar lines -- and its lyrics so over the top ("Kitteldags" is about cooking priests) that the group can't help but come off a bit gimmicky. But Finntroll's musicianship is tops, and these hairy lads are deadly serious about their ultra-fun music. Satan should get to party planning.

-- Christopher Porter