Nettwerk Records
2007
Sing You Sinners
About This Album
With the rise of the Hollywood extravaganza and the ensuing decline of vaudeville, American music lost much of its kick and joie de vivre. However, with her album Sing You Sinners, Erin McKeown sets forth to single-handedly resurrect the wayward cast-offs of Americana and return them to center stage, but with a sparkle and humor that is a poignant reminder of an age long gone.

Today, "Get Happy" is probably the best known song on the set, famously delivered onscreen by Judy Garland, but McKeown and her backing trio, further buttressed by a horn section, turn the song inside out, threading it through myriad musical styles, from its champagne piano intro across the shifting sands of jazz, into R&B and rock & roll, and out into '60s surf. In just over three minutes, "Get Happy" gleefully dances its way through three decades of music styles. "Paper Moon" is an equal classic, but now shines over the Caribbean in its new reggae-fied calypso gladrags. And of course, jazz fans will instantly recognize Fats Waller's "If You a Viper," but McKeown's vampish version is built around not piano, but her banjo and a walking bassline. Anita O'Day's "Thanks for the Boogie Ride" rode off in big band style; in contrast, McKeown drives it straight into rockabilly.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 and 10)

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