Local newcomer Amanda King is heading to the Big Apple for gigs at the Cabaret Convention and the Metropolitan Room with her new endeavor Forgotten Women, Lost Songs. Holding a fundraiser on her behalf, What’s a Poor Girl Gonna Do? is appropriate to her circumstances. It’s been a rough three years for this gal, enduring a divorce, homelessness and single-motherhood, but Amanda is strong of spirit and has come through with a strong new show, of which this evening was just a preview.

Opening with a swinging “Caravan” and a lovely “A Porter’s Love Song to a Chambermaid” (Andy Razaf /James P. Johnson), King establishes her husky alto as a gem and with some fine polish, she could follow in the footsteps of Paula West. She has that early Carmen McRae/Dinah Washington/Ella Fitzgerald smoothness and a natural subtlety. King is a cabaret stylist who can nail two old gems from 1937: Mack Gordon and Harry Revel’s ballad, “Through the Courtesy of Love,” from the movie Head Over Heels, and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Rockin’ Chair,” a big hit for Mildred Bailey. Percy Mayfield’s “Lost Mind” is an excellent choice for King, a bluesy shuffle with sass and style. Well-researched on female vocalists from the 1930s including Bailey, Blanche Calloway and Bea Wayne, King does justice to the material and is comfortable with swing, blues or ballads. I look forward to watching her mature and develop into a successful song stylist.

Steve Murray
Cabaret Scenes
August 30, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org