A Girl Called Eddy Live at The Hotel Cafe

We traveled 30 plus years to The Hotel Café Thursday night to see Erin Moran, otherwise known as A Girl Called Eddy. Her self titled CD on Anti records has drawn comparisons to Dusty Springfield and Burt Bacharach. And if there was any doubt we were in another era, the show opened with Erin putting the needle down on a portable turntable. Underneath the scratches were droning keyboards that Erin sang on top of. After that opening number, her two-man and one computer (she couldn’t afford to bring her drummer) band kicked in, playing her beautiful sad music. The only song that really got a different treatment was “The Long Goodbye”, which replaced the power chords from the CD with a more personal slide guitar. I enjoyed the difference, although I really love the hooks from the power chords on the CD. So, this was a great concert, right? Well, not really. Her set was short; under 40 minutes. And there just didn’t seem to be much personality coming from her. Maybe this live stuff is just new to her, but we weren’t really drawn in to her world. Maybe with time she will get more interesting. She is an excellent songwriter and has a beautiful voice. I look forward to next time.

Opening for A Girl Called Eddy was Israeli born, French raised, Keren Ann. I had never heard her music before this night and, well, I bought her current CD when it was over. She has a soft whispery voice, and my first thought was Claudine Longet. Keren doesn’t really have the accent, but she does have that European attitude and style. Her music grabbed us and drew us in. I found her shy sense of humor interesting since she has apparently been around, at least in Europe for 4 or 5 years. About a third of her songs were in French and I fell in love with a French blues number (don’t remember the name). She was accompanied by a keyboardist while she played a very proficient self assured acoustic guitar. I understand she has a new CD coming out next month. I will be picking it up and while you’re waiting, pick up “Not Going Anywhere”, her first English language release. And if I needed confirmation about how much I liked her, I heard her today on The Loft on XM. How long has Mike been keeping her a secret from us?