Lucille Carr-Kaffashan: Unwritten: A Celebration of 21st Century Female Singer-Songwriters

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Lucille Carr-Kaffashan

Unwritten: A Celebration of 21st Century Female Singer-Songwriters

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, July 20, 2023

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Lucille Carr-Kaffashan
Photo: Takako Harkness

Natural storyteller Lucille Carr-Kaffashan brought her newest celebration of singer-songwriters to Don’t Tell Mama. This is the summer edition of her Three Seasons of Singer-Songwriters series. As always, she brought her impressive intelligence and her perfect enunciation to feature an interesting and varied collection of writers—Susan Werner, Taylor Swift, Annie Lennox, Jewel, and others. With a top-notch trio of musicians (music director Jeff Cubeta on piano and back-up vocals, Matt Scharfglass on bass, and Sean Harkness on guitar) and almost invisible direction (the best kind) by David Hilder, the evening moved smoothly and assuredly along, showcasing the singer to her best advantage.

She smartly chose an appropriate opening medley of “Unwritten” (Natasha Bedingfield, Danielle Brisebois and Wayne Rodrigues) and “Chasing the Sun” (Sara Bareilles & Jack Antonoff). Carr-Kaffashan has that special talent of personalizing every song she chooses. “Shake It Off” (Swift) and “Kicking the Beehive” (Werner) both had a wonderful independent spirit and a can-do attitude along with a side order of cynicism. She was clearly drawn to numbers with off-beat humor which she delivered with great timing and wit. Just as she had an excellent opener, she had a very well-chosen closer, Werner’s “May I Suggest.” Carr-Kaffashan seems to have a special connection with this songwriter.

She kept her patter to a minimum, keeping it personal and to the point as she provided valuable information as to why she had chosen her selections and what they meant to her—all delivered with her consummate charm and wit. Other musical highlights included “Dear Future Husband” (Meghan Trainor & Kevin Kadish), “My Father’s Daughter” (Jewell), and her only musical theater song, “She Used to Be Mine” (Bareilles). She will return in the fall with the next “season” of her series—something to definitely look forward to.

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Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Noble, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."