Review: Left To Her Own Devices, AMY ENGELHARDT Charms Don't Tell Mama With Comical and Emotional Original Songs

A longtime member of the Grammy-nominated a cappella band, the Bobs, LA-based composer/vocalist Amy Engelhardt delivered a riotously funny hour of song at Don't Tell Mama on what she conceded was a "shvitzy" Sunday in June (the 19th to be exact). Three o'clock on Father's Day may not be the best slot for a gig, but the Berklee College of Music-trained musician (and 2011 MAC Dottie Burman Award-winner for songwriting) brought her signature wit and warmth to what felt as much like an intimate gathering in her living room as a formal cabaret performance. Engelhardt's show, My Own Devices, featured material from her first album, "Not Gonna Be Pretty," as well as material to appear on her upcoming second CD release.

"Bridge and Tunnel," a comic look at doomed love for a New Jersey girl (where Engelhardt was raised), set the tone well. The woman in the song realizes her relationship needs to change--not the sort "involving coin" but the "commitment to rearrange." The originality and intelligence of Engelhardt's lyrics evoke John Forster, the four-time Grammy nominee, well known to listeners of National Public Radio for his collaborations with Tom Chapin.

Combining bemusement with whimsy, both convey the quirkiness of everyday life, in songs that are like musical analogues of observational standup comedy. "Yreka Bakery" (introduced by "a story far longer than the song itself," Engelhardt joked), was brilliant. It's the performer's forte: musing over a trivial topic no one would think worthy of a song. By the conclusion, we wonder why everyone isn't writing about bakeries in tiny towns at the tip of the I-5 in California. Engelhardt delights in language for its own sake but she also uses an improbable topic to paint a picture of a scene, in this case a bakery. The other food song, "Sandwich Man," amused the audience, much of which was clearly familiar with her work.

Two heartfelt ballads--"Best Friend" and "Uncle Rudy"--revealed the songwriter's emotional range. The first is a combination of tribute and address to the speaker's best friend, who watches patiently as her friend becomes entangled with a married man. The topic may not be original, but the treatment is. And we hear echoes of Joni Mitchell as Engelhardt sings of her love both for her best friend and the man she knows cannot reciprocate her feelings. "Uncle Rudy," about a beloved, closeted uncle who is "a product of his time serving a sentence for no crime," hit particularly hard the day after the massacre in Orlando.

As promised early in the show, Engelhardt sang "What You'll Do For Love," a sidesplittingly funny parody of "What I Did For Love" (from A Chorus Line), which she performed at Don't Tell Mama at 16. Instead of "Love, love is never gone," we get "Wrong, there's always something wrong." Finally, the date gets chucked out the window, before the chorus, "You did what you had to do . . . " Engelhardt's voice can be breathy in the higher registers and sometimes she bangs on the keys a little harder than one would wish, but this may have something to do with the quality of the piano. One isn't bothered overmuch by these flaws because Engelhardt is so fundamentally likable and her lyrics so clever and poignant.

"Closed For the Season" was a perfect finale, striking the same bemused tone of "Bridge and Tunnel." The song catalogues, on the eve of fall, the men the speaker has slept with over a busy summer. It's a song that could only be written by an East Coaster (or Midwesterner) because Angelenos have no winter and therefore no need to modify their sex lives accordingly. Like "Bridge and Tunnel," it's the sort of detail that reminds you that Engelhardt, while a longtime Californian, will always on some level be a Jersey girl. In her case, that's a good thing.

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