It’s an often showy, sassy, always classy song he has in his heart, and with some mask-dropping, jaw-droppingly honest balladeering, his broken heart can be on his sleeve. That sleeve some-times can be imagined to be on an old-school entertainer’s vintage silk smoking jacket. Yes, silky-smooth singer/pianist Barry Lloyd reminds us of old days and old ways of sophisticated but spirited song parlor “presentation” in the best sense: a real pro in the know, devil-may-care flair demanding attention. Mostly, it works mah-velously. Relishing and embellishing phrases, he may as well be saying, “Just listen to this line; I love it, don’t you?” as he coos, whoops, growls, unleashes vibrato or pulls back to talk-sing a line to focus on a lyricist’s clever twist or rhyme.

About half the program is Rodgers & Hart, famous and not, with Pal Joey’s “Zip” being only one with plenty of zip. (Note the interpolated instrumental vamp from Gypsy in this earlier song about Gypsy Rose Lee—a fun, typical touch.) Much-enjoyed Lloyd can be quite a male vamp himself, a coy boy with joy, with a fey way held in check, tongue held in cheek… when he so chooses. With brashly braggadocio playfulness, as in Bart Howard’s “Sell Me,” he sells the song indeed, and you’ll swear you can see him winking and eyebrows arching. The cows in Cole Porter’s ode to “Farming” aren’t the only thing milked here: in grandly lingering over and pointing up the many clever lines, he occasionally reminds me of a classmate I had in high school who would use the yellow highlighter or red pen underlining 90% of the text of many pages in the book: almost everything is emphasized, nothing slips by. Fortunately, he’s working with juicy, jokey, jam-packed lyrics which, like “Which?” by ever clever Porter, are worthy of the microscope examination situation. Still, occasionally, I just wished he’d relax and let the song be… so we could discover its delights without a dotingly appreciative tour guide noodging. But what a pleasurechest of treats, being happily faced with the rare “Face the Facts” and “Disgustingly Rich” (both rich with Lorenz Hart smart, tart lines).

A startlingly effective, dramatically at sea “It Never Entered My Mind” is a nakedly confessional master stroke, as vulnerably real as the plucky smartass-for-the-smart-set numbers are high gloss Mr. Entertainer. Bravo!

This first solo CD has tracks culled from various shows over the years (minimal patter included demonstrates showmanship, too). With his own arrangements, most of the eighteen tracks have bass and drums but, perhaps surprisingly for someone who is a pianist and bandleader, taking instrumental breaks is not the order of the day… but love of music and lyrics, clearly transmitted, is. And it’s contagious and occasionally slightly outrageous.

Rob Lester
Cabaret Scenes
April 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org