Cabaret Confessional

A phenomenal performer (and my favourite cabaret artist) Barb Jungr’s long-awaited new album ‘The Men I Love - The New American Songbook’ will be out in early February from Naim Label.  This CD features songs by iconic American musicians such as Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. 

‘Wichita Lineman’ - the very song that started this project - from the album is available for free download for those that want a bit of a sneak preview. When a friend of mine emailed me about this track, I downloaded it immediately and Barb Jungr had me at the intro.  She works her usual magic and transforms the Glen Campbell classic into her very own in a totally unexpected way.

If this is the taste of what’s to come, the album will be mindblowingly good.

Here’s her message about the album on the Naim Label website:

From Barb Jungr:

The Men I love documents two things - my love of American popular song and its songwriters. There is a body of great work which sits for me right inside the classic Great American Songbook, where songs both stand the test of time and also are able to be re-imagined and sometimes re-harmonised easily, allowing them to grow and develop beyond original recordings. 

I worked on this collection for some time and then collaborated with Simon Wallace to arrange the songs for a season at the fabulous uptown venue, the Café Carlyle in New York City. The Café had become famous for a particular type of American and European song, and this collection blew the doors wide open. The season was wonderful, and audiences queued up to tell me how much the songs meant to them. At that time Simon and I began to look at how to record them in a way that represented the singing ‘live’.

We achieved this by recording hundreds - literally, of versions with piano and voice, till we found the performances. Then we asked some of Britain’s greatest musicians to come and work on the songs - including bassist Steve Watts, cellist Frank Schaeffer, flute genius Clive Bell and percussionist Paul Clarvis.

…And now it is finished!!!

Produced by Barb Jungr and Simon Wallace

Download the track and tell us what you think in the comment section.

To download ‘Wichita Lineman’, click here.

Barb Jungr’s official website: www.barbjungr.com

Naim Label’s official website: www.naimlabel.com

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