Singer Lucy Woodward put on a show last night at Cabaret Jazz inside The Smith Center for the
Performing Arts.
Woodward’s new 12-song album shows emotional depth, organic musicality and personally charged songcraft and will come as a surprise to listeners who are only familiar with Woodward via her 2003 pop hit “Dumb Girls.” Seamlessly drawing from a deep well of jazz and pop influences, Hooked! marks Woodward as an effortlessly engaging, deeply expressive vocalist, an insightful, disarmingly witty songwriter, and distinctive, charismatic interpreter of outside material.
Woodward’s formidable songwriting talents animate slyly swinging “He Got Away,” the bittersweet breakup song “Purple Heart,” the liltingly blue “Slow Recovery” and the playfully humorous “Too Much To Live For.” Another highlight is the breezily elegant “Another Woman,” especially written for Lucy by admirer Nellie McKay, who lends her harmony vocals to the track. Woodward’s interpretive gifts are also showcased on her hauntingly seductive reading of the obscure Peggy Lee number “Sans Souci,” her poignant take on Hoagy Carmichael’s 1930s pop standard “Stardust,” and a rousing rendition of “I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song),” originally sung by Louis Prima in Disney’s The Jungle Book, and a tune that Woodward has been singing since her teens.
Click on the photos below to enlarge.
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