Last night I spent a wonderful evening at City Winery for the Album Release show of Jill Sobule’s new record Dottie’s Charms.
I have seen Jill at Joe’s Pub a few times and her shows are always enjoyable. The audience shouts out requests from her vast catalog of witty yet sometimes sad songs and she plays her’s and their favorites. She always plays “I Kissed a Girl” the mid-1990s hit that was not covered by Katy Perry.
The City Winery show was quite different. She began by warming up the audience of devoted fans with “Jetpack” from Underdog Victorious. The first few bars were played and I was so happy because that is one of my favorite of Jill’s songs. She then launched into several songs from Dottie’s Charms which is a very interesting concept album.
Jill collaborated with her writer friends to write a song about each charm on a charm bracelet she was given that belonged to Dottie, whom Jill never knew. It is a great idea and the songs were sad and funny and very Jill.
Jill’s band Dinah Shore Jr. electrified her set, and that was also different. I had never seen her play with them. Personally I have a huge admiration and respect for girls who play electric guitars. That really is a boys’ club and there’s something rebellious about it that I like.
Sidenote: I took a few guitar lessons when I was 18 and it was on an acoustic guitar with steel strings. Coming from playing classical piano, I was not used to the pain and I didn’t have the strength to practice for more than a 1/2 hour. I so wanted to be a cool girl with a guitar.
Back to Jill’s show! First I must not forget to mention that City Winery is a great venue. Since I almost always go to shows alone, at City Winery you are always at a very small table with 2 or 3 other people. It’s great if the people are friendly and awkward if they ignore you.
I lucked out last night. My three tablemates couldn’t have been nicer. It reminded me of when I went backpacking through Europe during college and would meet great people on the trains and in the hostels. Anyway they really enhanced Jill’s show for me. We talked and ate and had wine before the show began and they were excellent company.
Back to Jill – she brought her Mom Elaine on stage to perform a rebuttal to Jill’s song about the orthopedic ugly big shoes Jill has to wear as a teenager. It was clever and cute.
So what a great night! I didn’t buy Dottie’s Charms yet, but I want to get the vinyl hopefully from Jill’s online store. It sold out everywhere on Record Store Day. Go to jillsobule.com and check out her online store and definitely check out Dottie’s Charms.
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