Patti Smith took the challenge. A singer/songwriter/poet/artist and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Smith decided to dedicate this evening at the American Songbook Series to her mother, Beverly, a nightclub singer in the 1930's. Instead of concentrating on only her own audacious punk songbook, Smith was going to sing the songs her parents loved.

Wrong choice. You have to admire the challenge, but the traditional American standards like "My Buddy" (Kahn and Donaldson), and "My Funny Valentine" (Rodgers and Hart) are not Patti Smith's thing. More than just being disconnected from the songs, she seemed unprepared, did not know the lyrics, and worse, it appeared she had not listened to these tunes for quite some time. Unfortunately, this is the show Patti Smith presented in the Allen Room, and so this is the show being reviewed.

She was accompanied by a trio that seemed equally detached, both from her songs and from each other: Paul Nowinski on bass, Jackson Smith on guitar, and pianist Luis Resto.

There were a few songs that Smith was more secure with, like Hank Williams', "I'm so Lonesome I Could Die," and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (Bob Nolan), but when she dedicated "Star Dust" (Carmichael/ Parish) to her father, she read the admittedly ornate printed verse as if she were reading it cold. "This is not easy," she admitted.

Lyrics like "Autumn Leaves" by Kosma, Prévert, and Johnny Mercer were lost mid-stream, sometimes ignored, sometimes filled in off-the-cuff. She opened, "It Might As Well Be Spring" (Rodgers and Hammerstein) with "I'm as 'reckless' as a willow in a windstorm," (the word, of course, is 'restless'). This could be overlooked were not virtually every standard song so slipshod.

When Smith delivered a song in her genre, she was on terra firma. She honored her ancestors moving westward with an impressionistic and poetic, "Blue Poles" (Patti Smith, Oliver Ray). Although Lennon/McCartney's "Blackbird" is not an American song, she pointed out, she likes singing it, although in rendering Neil Young's "Helpless," Smith acknowledged the reflective mood of the song without sinking into it.

Smith has a unique tone, not big, not pretty, but its dark heaviness was effective in a smoldering song like, "Don't Smoke in Bed." (Peggy Lee, credited to Willard Robison). She exposed the lusty feel of "Because The Night," her first hit song, co-written with Bruce Springsteen.

Her final song reminded Americans that "The People Have the Power" (Patti and Fred "Sonic" Smith) with the timely lines:

"The power to dream/to rule
to wrestle the world from fools."

Kudos for accepting challenges, but hisses for ignoring the prep work.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
March 1, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org