If you haven’t yet heard — or heard of — Spencer Day, the day is coming, and when this particular Day comes to a cabaret near you, do yourself a big favor and go to see him.

Spencer Day is something very, very special.

You probably won’t hear more than a handful of songs you already know, but you will hear songs you will want to know and to hear again and again — to enjoy the melodies, to understand the nuances and to marvel at the brilliant wordplay as funneled through the heart and mind of a twenty-nine-year-old on the edge of full-fledged stardom.

Yes, Spencer Day is that good!

What’s particularly noteworthy about him is that you can’t pigeonhole his style — he writes and sings soft rock, blues, jazz, country, humorous songs and standard pop interchangeably and does very well with each, whether standing alone at the microphone or accompanying himself at the piano.

One of Day’s most effective numbers was “Vagabond” (also the title of his latest CD) — a lush, romantic ballad about leaving home to find out who you are (“Time to close another door/Don’t know what I’m searching for … I was born a vagabond/ Never stay for anyone”), which he sang in a soft, warm, uplifting manner, with strong support on acoustic guitar from John Storie.

Other standouts in an evening of them included: “How Did You Do It?” — a bluesy song about a bad break-up — backed with terrific staccato guitar playing from Storie; “Taken,” a brilliantly conceived number about finding too many romantic options when one is in a relationship and how those options suddenly dry up when one is available again; “The Weeping Willow,” about appreciating the moment you are in (“I’ll bend and wither with time/ Take what is sweet and mellow/ In the moment …”); and “Movie of Your Life,” a jazzy ballad with a pretty melody sung in a laid-back, relaxed style (“Let me be a moment/ In the movie of your life”).

Day sang a couple of humorous songs he’s written about famous women in history — one about Marie Antoinette, entitled “Poor Marie,” and a small gem called “Mary Lincoln’s Last Night Out,” in which Mrs. Lincoln pleads with Abe to take her for a night on the town, including a stop at Ford’s Theatre.

He also performed a handful of songs by others, including Frank Loesser’s “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year,” Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields) — the latter accompanied on piano by buddy Micah S. Hulscher, who had his own transcendent moment on an instrumental of Duke Ellington’s “Don’t You Know I Care.”

Day stuck with standards for a double encore:  Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” both superb.

Spencer Day will appear as the artist-in-residence at the Upright Cabaret on Vermont on Tuesday, April 13.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
March 25, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org