Winner – Jack Phillips – After last years first rate exercise in modern Cabaret sounds Cafe Nights In New York, Phillips got to work on a blues record which should be out later this year and also formed a band to perform his exquisite standards and the great American songbook at Don’t Tell Mama’s last Tuesday. Unfortunately, I was in Brooklyn that night but Phillips was kind enough to forward a back-of-the-room raw audio recording to me. From surprises like “Mona Lisa And Mad Hatters” and “New York State Of Mind” to an opening salvo (a song inspiration Bobby Short made his own a long time ago”) “I’ll Take Manhattan” followed by his own “Take Them To Manhattan”, the sort of juxtaposition that makes a set glow. Jack is back July 5th, a great beginning to the summer.
Winner – Laura Marling – Quite why Laura would make her entire tour in support of the album of the year When I Was An Eagle, a six city spring, I have no idea. She played a total of five songs in her new home Los Angeles and at the last date of the tour in New York (that’s where I was instead of at Jack Phillips) we got 65 minutes of pure heaven. No encore. And too much guitar tuning.