Phillip Chaffin’s When the Wind Blows South celebrates songs from and about the land below the Mason-Dixon Line. Using a delightfully eclectic mix of musical styles (folk, rock, classic and contemporary showtunes), Chaffin doesn’t always directly evoke the land of Dixie, but the song selections conjure an over-arcing mood of Tennessee Williams, Margaret Mitchell and sweet tea. With his clear voice and careful phrasing, Chaffin focuses on the musicality of each song as much as its emotion.

Naturally, songs like the bouncy “Pardon My Southern Accent,” the sensual “I Never Has Seen Snow,” the dreamy “Old Devil Moon” and title song most recognizably evoke the south and its many cultures. But it is the “southernization” of less obvious numbers that gives the album its most subtle and intriguing flavors, and make for the most interesting listening. “The One I Love,” from Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello Again, is gentle and sweet, and one of the more intriguing choices for the collection. “Is It too Late?” from Ricky Ian Gordon’s My Life with Albertine is haunting and melancholy, but doesn’t quite have the same emotional impact as it does in the show’s context. Likewise, his “Leaving on a Jet Plane” is very emotional, but loses some of the sense of loss and longing in the driving, powerful arrangement. His blending of “I Remember You” and “Too Late Now” into one song creates a poignant and tragic aural image of the original meaning of the word “nostalgia”: the pain from an old wound.

Jena Tesse Fox
Cabaret Scenes
July/August 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org