In the grit-obscured light of smokey clubs where the bluesy-ladies rasp, sigh and cry, you look for another Elkie Brooks, Genya Ravan or Jenny Darren. You don't usually find one that comes close. What you really want is the original. Unfortunately, though the originals survive, in all three cases, they're doing small or very local gigs, or some charity event nowhere where you are. And given the difficulty of making money off music...they aren't prone to release many albums, even a "download" only.
Darren has spent a lot of her time doing other things, including teaching. I don't know that even when she does a show, she's going to surprise the crowd by belting out the old knockout numbers like "Lay Me Like a Lady" or "Use What You Got" or "Heartbreaker."
Jenny fans are waiting for that album with "Song for New York" on it. It's been promised for quite a while now. Meanwhile...below is "California Dreaming," a live version she did in some small club not long ago. It's that venerable, immortally peculiar call-and-response number made famous by The Mamas and the pervy Papas.
It somehow blends religious confusion ("I pretend to pray") an eerie sense of mortality and season change, and the stupid idea that California is the place to be (no, and it's not Seattle or Portland, either). I have no idea what "Song for New York" sounds like. If Jenny's been in New York over the summer, she's noted that climate change produced a cooler than usual summer, including a premature change of some leaves turning brown. And the sky, gray.
Fall is approaching, and the inevitable discontent of a winter's day. Console yourself that it wouldn't really be better if you were in L.A.
Hopefully "Song for New York" (single or album) will be available one day via Jenny's self-named dot.com. Check there for news on her music and her latest gigs. Jenny Darren California Dreaming
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