Ann Hampton Callaway
Finding Beauty-Inspired Classics and Originals
54 Below, NYC, August 21, 2024
Reviewed by Alix Cohen
With the addition of a few classic soft-rock selections that Ann Hampton Callaway had found absorbing early on, tonight’s show featured her songwriting skills. Yes, she writes songs—good ones. This was a positive, even joyful, show—heartfelt, proud, grounded, and accessibly sophisticated.
Finding Beauty: Originals, Volume 1 (the title of her new CD) was syncopated and upbeat: “Someone new is looking through my lashes/a phoenix rising from the ashes,” she sang, scatting with palpable pleasure. It was Anne Frank, Callaway tells us, who taught her at nine to look for beauty. Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move” followed. Heads bobbed, feet tapped. Step, touch, step, touch—she bounced and clapped. She told us that “Tapestry (King’s breakthrough album) made me want to be a songwriter. “I had a huge crush on James Taylor… We never met… I’m a little bitter…. He wrote this first song on his life’s philosophy; I wrote the second on mine.” “Secret O’ Life” was almost literally light.” “Isn’t it a lovely ride?” sloped like a water slide; it was a lovely arrangement. “You Can’t Rush Spring” was the kind of standard that iconic vocalists might’ve recorded in the 1950s. “It’s taken me my whole life to learn/You can’t rush spring.” Sigh.
“Forever and a Day” (written with Alan Bergman) was created as an anniversary gift from Callaway’s sister Liz to her husband Dan Foster. “And I love Kari” (Ann’s wife). The result was “a jewel of a song about finding the love of your life,” Callaway said as she gazed across a sea of faces at her inamorata. On its tail, “Stealin’ Away” (written with Dan Levine) arrived as jazz noir: “Stealin’ away/There’s not a place we need to be/Stealin’ away.” As he did on many songs, pianist Billy Stritch deftly added vocal back-up.
Photo: Alix Cohen
“The Moon Is a Kite”—”I fly from my heart”—took darting, swooping flight, playing tag with a breeze. The piano whirled and dipped, the vocal slid and rose. It evoked a sky that might have been painted by Maxfield Parish, but the kite was definitely Callaway’s. Based on a Reader’s Digest story, “Information Please” (written with Amanda McBroom) was the tender tale of a child who developed a wonderfully supportive relationship with a phone operator he never met. The vocal was delicate; the phrasing was perfect. “Hey, hey, I heard her say/Things will all turn out ok.” “Hannah Waddingham says tears are the orgasm of the soul,” Callaway quoted. Her sister Liz Callaway duetted on “You’ve Got a Friend.” The temperature in the room rose with sibling affection. We all sang the chorus as if we were around a campfire.
Photo: Alix cohen
“John Lennon actually wrote a template for peace. Years later, I wrote my response,” Ann told us. His “Imagine” emerged mellifluously, rather like a prayer, aided by Tim Horner’s soft drum taps and Stritch’s cottony piano chords. Callaway’s “At the Same Time” joined hands with Lennon’s lyric wishes: “Think of all the hearts/ Beating in the world/At the same time/Think of all the faces/Telling stories of their lives/At the same time.” It was eloquent and lovely. Dignity and purpose shone through Ann Hampton Callaway’s talent.
