A ringer.

Susan Winter starts this live performance CD as if someone had pointed to her and said, ‘Sing.’ So she placed her splayed fingers atop her heart, mouthed “Me? Okay,”and matter-of-factly started sing-spieling “Lucky to Be Me” (Bernstein/ Comden/Green) somewhat under the radar, building to a lucky to be her, lucky to be here—and for the listener, lucky to be heard—finishing note.

After settling into smooth and sultry sounds on Carroll Coates’ “You’ll See”—Tom Hubbard on bass and mixmaster Rick Jensen at the piano—Susan surprises again. Did I think it would ever be necessary to hear any other than Streisand’s “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home”? It’s not a contest but this savvy songstress gives a reshaped reading and takes a couple of juicy bites of the lyric. Winter comfortably and confidently, words aptly descriptive of this entire performance, sometimes integrates her personal patter to segue through the well-chosen song roster, all of which pretty much perfectly complement her easy, well-placed layered vocal sound and style. She plies straightforward subtlety—not an oxymoron—on “Only You (And You Alone)” (Buck Ram/Ande Rand), conversational musicality to “I Love the Way You’re Breaking My Heart” (Louis Alter/Milton Drake) and intelligent fine tuning throughout.

In her program in its entirety, by turns tender and trumpeted, this ringer will ring your bells.

Noah Tree
Cabaret Scenes
March 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org