Gina Gershon
Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues
Café Carlyle, NYC, June 5, 2018
Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes
Photo: Ellen Qbertplaya
When Gina Gershon sings that Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues, she means it. The actress/singer/writer is having one wild and wonderful time in her debut at the Café Carlyle with a fantastic four-piece band and a mix of jazz, blues, country, and soul.
Strolling to the stage with a naughty grin, glass in hand, singing the title song made famous by blues legend Ida Cox, Gershon promises a slightly ragged sound and fiery spirit. And she delivers. How often does a Café Carlyle performer draw out a butterfly knife from her jacket, admitting it’s illegal, and break into Jessie Mae Robinson’s post-World War II R&B favorite, “I’m Gonna Catch Me a Rat”?
Gershon’s wild woman leanings come to her through nature and nurture and she’s got the stories to prove it. The knife came from family housekeeper/bookie Laura’s advice when she came to New York. Her late uncle, Jack Elliott, was a jazz musician, and her grandmother, Pearl, was a good-time gal with a sister—great-aunt Ida—who taught nine-year-old Gina all about sex.
Gershon wrote an original song, “Marie,” for an old friend who taught her how to play the Jew’s harp (“Sometimes I call it the Chosen instrument,” she quipped). The Jew’s harp also stressed the country twang in Leon Payne’s “Lost Highway,” a hit for Hank Williams. Talking about her father, Gershon sang “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” not really appropriate since most people are aware of Cole Porter’s original “sugar daddy” meaning in the lyric.
Music director/trumpet player Steven Bernstein added his horn and some vocal “arfs” to Gershon’s rendition of “He’s a Tramp” (Peggy Lee/Sonny Burke). A breakup-mashup link featured selections from Pee Wee King to Prince, leading into Gershon’s own trippy “Pretty Girls on Prozac.” Hinting of LSD, Mickey Newbury’s “Just Dropped In (to See What Condition My Condition Was in)” became a late ’60s hit for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. Kudos to “In the Dark,” written by blues singer Lil Green, a salute to Bobby Short’s long reign in the Café Carlyle.
Final words of wisdom for wild women was “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (and Dream Your Troubles Away),” an oldie by Harry Barris, Ted Koehler and Billy Moll. Adding to the show’s vibrancy are the top-flight band members, music director Bernstein, Eli Brueggeman on piano, Brad Jones on bass, and Jerome Jennings on drums.
