FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Labor Day McKay

McKay AOK

Today we are taking a listen and a look at the wildly imaginative music and lyrics of Nellie McKay. Her new album HOME SWEET MOBILE HOME drops this month and in this column you will find a sneak preview HD live performance capture of McKay performing her new hit single from the album, "Caribbean Time". Mckay is in a class - and a world - all her own and the wit, charm and dexterity both in her compositional and performance abilities are truly awe-inspiring to behold whether you are a Broadway baby or a pop music fan (or virtually anyone else, for that matter). See if you don't agree! McKay is AOK!

The Highest Down Low

Nellie McKay defines idiosyncratic. No one approaches her prowess in crafting the equal parts dear and biting, lilting and jilting, jaunty and jarring music and lyrics that she writes and performs so exceptionally well. It is impossible to ascribe any style - or even world of style - to the musical universe McKay creates in the intricately woven, rich tapestries of studio album experiences she creates every single time she is up at bat. GET AWAY FROM ME; PRETTY LITTLE HEAD; OBLIGATORY VILLAGERS; and even the RUMOR HAS IT… soundtrack; each is a master class in classy mastery of music and lyrics, Cole Porter-style (read: acute attentiveness and genius). Putting on a Nellie McKay album is like opening an encyclopedia of pop culture - and pop music - history. The words of so many great authors, the voices of so many activists, the emotions of so many unexpressed souls repressed - all are plain to hear and clear to see in the content of the original songs McKay creates. Enough build-up, because like those great, beautiful New York buildings that are being torn down as we speak somewhere in the city for no apparent reason (a cause close to McKay's heart), let me be a bastion to the New Age Brill Building brilliance of Nellie McKay. Here is a crash-course in why she's it and where it's at.

Taken from THE VIEW circa 2004 around the release of GET AWAY FROM ME is Nellie McKay giving a particularly hilarious interview followed by the subdued, subtly sarcastic ode to matrimony, "I Wanna Get Married". Does she mean it? Doesn't she? Does it matter? (Question: if she meant it, would she end the song with that line? I think not! But, whatever works for you).

To get a sense of the sound McKay can create in the studio, take a listen to this particularly syncopated and striking composition titled "The Down Low" taken from 2007's PRETTY LITTLE HEAD. Every new McKay album is a fresh new experience - a new religion, really, at least for the devout McKay-ites among us - and this track is certainly no exception. How many genres are introduced, referenced, explored, refigured in this song alone? Is it just me or is McKay able to anthropomorphize her own experience into her music and let the song create it's own real narration? No, it isn't just me. See if you dig the "Down Low" high, too!

Here is a live performance of Nellie McKay's newest composition, a reggae-infused summer jam titled "Caribbean Time" that was previously reviewed in this week's SOUND OFF column along with a link to a download of the track. Here is a live version of the song to illustrate just how different McKay's songs can sound live from their studio sisters and their chameleon-like ability - true versatility - in their ability to be adapted to any number of instruments or styles (more often than not: piano and ukulele). A perfect long Labor Day weekend song if there ever were any! Enjoy!

Also, be sure to pick up all of McKay's previous releases - GET AWAY FROM ME, PRETTY LITTLE HEAD, OBLIGATORY VILLAGERS, etc. - and pre-order HOME SWEET MOBILE HOME here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile=1&id=100001262114439#!/nelliemckaymusic?ref=ts

That's all for this week. Please remember that if you have discovered a particularly thrilling, unique, bizarre or hilarious Broadway-related clip to please send us a line at the link. Until next week…