Search - Nellie Mckay :: Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day

Like a beautiful yard sale treasure, these vocals are rare a

Robert Berry | Sacramento, CA United States | 10/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I popped this in my car stereo hoping to hear a few tracks on the way to work, and because of a super rainstorm induced traffic jam, was able to hear each track in its entirety before I pulled up to the old parking lot. It was good enough to make me want to drive home and hear it all again. A rainy day with Nellie McKay is my idea of heaven. "Normal as Blueberry Pie" is a sultry and fun record that would have fit in perfectly with the '50s, yet is a welcome and gorgeous modern sunbeam in the otherwise murky fog of autotuned garbage that's poured into our ears. On one hand, it's a shame to not enjoy the original songwriting skills of McKay as she's one of the best young scribes out there, but in her hands, the work of Doris Day is simply sublime. There's a love for the source material that's clearly apparent, yet they aren't straight covers, either. Prior McKay collaborator Bob Dorough and other jazz greats provide occasional backup to hold it all together. The cover art is bright and wonderful, as are the interior art surrounding the liner notes featuring a bunch of great vintage outfits she picked up from lord knows where. I recommend picking up the physical CD instead of an iTunes download for that very reason. A must for any fan of Nellie, Doris Day, or good songs in general. Might be a great present for your kid, to show them some music that isn't crappy, too!"

Nellie is far from "normal," and that's a good thing!

Brad S. Ryan | Columbus, OH USA | 10/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am an ardent fan of Nellie McKay's airy voice and quirky, original lyrics. Nellie's talent rises far above the overproduced cesspool that is our modern music industry, and she has produced another gem with "Normal as Blueberry Pie." The one original song on this disc fuses perfectly with the covers Nellie selected from Doris Day's extensive canon. In some respects, Nellie has come full circle from her debut. A critic of her first album, "Get Away From Me," described Nellie's complex persona as a combination of Doris Day and Eminem. Now she has recorded a tribute to Doris Day that few contemporary singers could have pulled off with such a fresh treatment. I hope we get a full disc of Nellie hip hop the next time around to showcase her less misogynistic Eminem side.



"Should have signed with Verve instead of Sony," is a memorable line from her debut disc that highlights another full circle evolution for Nellie now that she really has signed with Verve. "Normal as Blueberry Pie," her Verve debut, is definitively her best work since "Get Away From Me." I hope she has found a record company that will embrace her diverse talents and finally showcase her talents to a larger audience. I played this album for my grandmother and she was immensely moved by a woman my age recording an album that could just have easily been released when she was a little girl. Nellie's universal appeal has never been more apparent, and I think it will prove to be her ticket to greater success. This is an album you must own and share with all generations."

Still waiting for Nellie to fulfill her promise

Joseph Byrd | McKinleyville, CA USA | 11/02/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'm an early fan of Nellie. Nothing like her energy and in-your-face assertiveness can come close to her. She is a brilliant instinctive songwriter and singer. She's not nearly at that celestial level on piano (she's good, only not like Judith Hill, closer to pop divas Alicia Keyes and Imogen Heap). She is determinedly idiosyncratic - she has a particular affinity for conservative 50's swing. She is a charismatic performer (honed, like Bette Midler, at gay nightclubs). Her earlier albums were full of clever music ideas and witty hooks, and her growth as an artist in the past has included distinguished undertakings in theater and film, while her songwriting has not matured. But it's been a stressful passage, and she's feisty and brave; like the Dixie Chicks, she took on Columbia Records and won...sort of.



1) This album was a very good idea. Nellie's kind of played out the role of intimidatingly brilliant ingénue, and this showcases her vocal talents better, I think, than most of her own songs do (maybe because in her own songs, you have to keep a close eye out for irony, word-play, and acerbic sarcasm...and here, she doesn't need either).



Doris Day is a great choice for a retro album, partly because she, like Nellie, was smarter than most of the girls, and had to play the roles of big band girl singer, dumb pretty blonde, and undergo all the sexual harassment that was endemic for women in that era and industry. She sued her corrupt management, and won.



Underneath the 50s veneer, Day was a magnificent stylist in both big band and mainstream pop - "Sentimental Journey" and "Secret Love." Nellie's style evokes Doris Day without imitating her. Unfortunately "Secret Love" is not on this compendium. There's a reason for this, I think: McKay has chosen to do a kind of, well, consciously *jazz* version of the songs. That's unfortunate, because while she has great vocal instincts, the songs are poorly accompanied (e.g., "Mean To Me" has a delicious vocal, but is overpowered by gratuitous, busy guitar fills). In other words, she has bad taste.



2) If she was going to do this album, I wish she had gotten an arranger, a la Linda Ronstadt and Nelson Riddle, rather than getting studio musician odds and ends together and improvising head arrangements in the studio. (If her accompanist were Les Paul or Joe Pass or their ilk, that would be different. But then she would have had to trust herself to a real producer and/or arranger.)



And it seems Nellie won't let anyone have any creative role in her records. It has to be PLAYED by her, ARRANGED by her, and PRODUCED by her. In other words, she has bad taste, doesn't appreciate the value of a good arrangement or top studio musicians, AND insists that everything be done her way. Here, that way seems to be low-budget jazz combos.



Doris Day would have demanded strings, or maybe just a better producer. Nellie McKay seems determined to have neither. Reluctance to collaborate with better, more experienced musicians is not a sign of maturity.



When Nellie grows up, she will be a powerful presence in pop music.

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