It’s lucky that Joe’s Pub is located in a solid brick-and-stone building.  Otherwise, the pounding energy that marked Lina Koutrakos’s newest show there would have blown down the walls. If not, her audience’s enthusiasm and delight would have.

The evening, a one-shot, was a non-stop, powerhouse presentation featuring Koutrakos’s husky, lived-in voice, backed by her talented band, the Low Country. The group consisted of Jeremy Driesen on drums, Nate Buccieri on piano and organ, Ted Stafford on acoustic guitar, Jean-Pierre Perreaux on electric guitar and Rob Simpson on guitar.

The show marked return of Koutrakos to Joe’s Pub after nearly a year’s absence tending to family in Missouri. With her magnetism and Greek-heritage passion intact, it was as if she had never left. Most of the songs – rock and roll – were her own work, many written in collaboration with Dan Gross (including “Anybody’s Guy,” “Last Love Song,” “What Am I Gonna Do”), and others developed with other writers. Her finale, the sweet favorite, “Loves Grows Here,” was written by her with Gross and Perreaux.

Koutrakos has said that “singing feeds my soul.”  Her earthy spirit, her voice, the truth in her singing, all feed her audience’s, too.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
June 2, 2012
www.cabaretscenes.org