Amazing!  That one word sums up Barb Jungr’s performance tonight.  If you want me to use two words, add “simply” at the beginning, because that’s what Barb Jungr did tonight, she deconstructed every song and sang it as simply as it could be sung, and this simplicity is what makes her music take flight, become unique, speak to us.

Her voice, however, is anything but simple.  It, too, is unique.  I hadn’t seen Barb perform before, and was told by a friend, “You’ll either love or hate her voice,” so I went thinking, “OK, she has the Marmite of voices.” Well, if that’s the case, then give me a jar, and count me a fan! (For our U.S. readers who may not know, Marmite is a British food spread.)

Her high notes ring with such piercing emotion; they take you by surprise, but sweep you along as if you’re caught in a current from which you can’t escape.  When she hits a low note in full voice, it’s as if a wail from the depths has been released, then her breathier notes soothe you with their warmth. She sings with pathos, with pain and joy, and with her entire body. She enunciates beautifully and interprets every word. She works.

While it might even be just a wee bit scary being caught in that current, or hearing the wail, or watching someone experience such emotion in front of you, it’s also exciting and edgy and you don’t want to get out—you want to see what’s next, what’s around the bend.

Tonight’s show celebrated the release of her new CD, The Men I Love, The New American Songbook, which was reviewed in the April, 2010 edition of Cabaret Scenes, so I won’t mention any specific songs here. Barb rightly pointed out that the songs on the album are pretty depressing but she treated us to two “bonus” songs from happier times/albums, including a terrific arrangement of “Walking in Memphis,” which even touched on gospel.

What makes an entire evening of this intense an emotional journey endurable is the wonderful humour she interjects between each and every song. While humorous, and often tongue-in-cheek, Barb also interjects some more philosophical points about life — one was learning to live in the gap between expectation and reality, which is how she described Paul Simon’s “My Little Town.” She also called it a road map on life for young people, and all of these things it is, albeit often rather bleak.

Her accompanist, Simon Wallace, is a match made in heaven in this most spellbinding of evenings.

This is a plea from me to anyone interested in music and a real interpreter of songs……Go see Barb Jungr. Go to experience her ability to sing songs so purely. Go for the emotional journey. Go to experience her lust for life (and not just the song). There many other reasons to go, but I urge you, GO!

Harold Sanditen
Cabaret Scenes
March 27, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org