The Men I Love: The New American Songbook Barb Jungr

• 1Once In A Lifetime04:09
• 2I'm A Believer05:47
• 3Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache03:15
• 4Night Comes On06:05
• 5Can't Get Used To Losing You / Red Red Wine03:26
• 6The River04:55
• 7I Saw The Light04:01
• 8This Old Heart Of Mine / Love Hurts05:41
• 9Everything I Own04:05
• 10You Ain't Going Nowhere03:21
• 11My Little Town03:42
• 12Wichita Lineman03:46
• Total Runtime52:13

Info for The Men I Love: The New American Songbook

The Men I Love began its journey at a meeting in New York where someone asked me to name a new collection and I said without thinking -The Men I Love- and thought, I know, this is the songbook I sing, the New American Songbook, the great songs that bear re-interpretation from the great writers that emerged during and post rock ‘n’ roll and everything that followed it. The songbook I grew up with.

Subsequently I was asked to appear at The Café Carlyle in New York, and I met up with Simon Wallace, who was a collaborator of old, and with whom I’d made some of my best work in the past. We hadn’t played together for several years, and working together again, with all that had happened in the meantime, was a joy. I had a very clear idea of the repertoire for The Men I love, and being a minimalist, my desired accompaniment requires a great deal of re-arranging. Simon was more than up for it, and we found the journey of each song over several months, and the collection began to have its own life. The New York trip was a blast, and on returning we decided to record this as my next album.

It’s taken longer to make than anything I’ve done before, in large part because I wanted to get as close as possible to the spirit of live performances but still make a record in the traditional sense. Simon and I laid down each song live, over and over, until the voice and piano performances came as close to that feeling you get when the song is singing itself as it does live.

Then we added everything else, and then took it nearly all away again. Then that process repeated itself with the photos and the cover design. All along the way people who shared this vision have been towers of support and strength, so that all in all, this has been a long, but revealing labour of love.

It is a sign of how the Rochdale-born singer’s reputation has travelled across the Atlantic that she returns to Woody Allen’s Upper East Side haunt, Café Carlyle, later this week. Walking a fine line between cabaret, jazz and grown-up pop, Jungr has always had an eye for an unlikely tune. This pensive collection hits its stride from the outset, with a brave reworking of Once in a Lifetime — it’s as if David Byrne had fallen into the hands of a Sondheim heroine. The Todd Rundgren anthem I Saw the Light benefits just as much from Jungr’s sharp intelligence, the pianist Simon Wallace sculpting another of his subtle small-group arrangements. (Clive Davis, The Times on Sunday UK)

Barb Jungr is renowned for her unique vocal style and approach to arrangements and interpretations of a wide range of songs. When you hear her sing The Talking Heads classic track “Once In A Lifetime” on the upcoming release The Men I Love-The New American Songbook, you will find yourself caught up in the elucidation and forget who actually originally did the song to begin with. That is homage to the diverse talents of Barb Jungr and her mastery of the art of using the Vox Humana.

The critics have compared Jungr to Nina Simone and Peggy Lee, calling her 'a British Edith Piaf', 'One of the best interpreters of Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan anywhere on this angst ridden planet today' (Village Voice, New York) and “mesmerizing” (The New York Times).

Barb Jungr, Vocal
Simon Wallace, Piano & Synth
Steve Watts, Double Bass
Frank Schaeffer, Cello
Paul Clarvis, Percussion
Clive Bell, Flute

Tracklist:
1. Once In A Lifetime (David Byrne / Brian Eno)
2. I’m A Believer (Neil Diamond)
3. Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache (Sandy Linzer / Denny Randell)
4. Night Comes On (Leonard Cohen)
5. Can’t Get Used To Losing You / Red Red Wine (Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman / Neil Diamond)
6. The River (Bruce Springsteen)
7. I Saw The Light (Todd Rundgren)
8. This Old Heart of Mine / Love Hurts (Holland-Dozier-Holland / B & F Bryant)
9. Everything I Own (David Gates)
10. You Ain’t Going Nowhere (Bob Dylan)
11. My Little Town (Paul Simon)
12. Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb)

With rave international reviews and two prestigious New York awards (2008 Nightlife Award for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist and Best International Artist 2003 Backstage Award), Barb Jungr is renowned for her unique vocal style, interpretation of song and radical approach to arrangements. Her acclaimed releases on Linn Records and Naim Label, and "revelatory" live performances have brought her to audiences all around the world.

Barb celebrated 2011 by touring the UK extensively with a new Bob Dylan collection, performing the show Girl Talk with Mari Wilson and Gwyneth Herbert, and collaborating with Kuljit Bhamra and Simon Wallace on Durga Rising. The CD The Man In The Long Black Coat – Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan was released in May 2011 by Linn Records to excellent reviews. She toured throughout the UK and the USA in autumn 2011, performing for the first time in LA and Austin with return appearances in San Francisco and a two week run in New York.

"One of the best interpreters of Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan anywhere on this angst ridden planet today" (Village Voice, New York) and "one of the best nightclub singers in the world" (Time Out New York), Jungr is “a fearless iconoclast who dives into the deepest waters of popular song to wrest exotic treasure from the ocean floor" (The New York Times). Her earlier Dylan collection, Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan: Every Grain of Sand (Linn Records 2002), which the Wall Street Journal called “the most significant vocal album of the 21st century thus far”, is now regarded as a cult classic album.

In 2012, Barb worked on and completed her long awaited new release Stockport To Memphis with collaborators Simon Wallace and Jenny Carr, whilst touring and writing. The album, released on Naim Jazz in October 2012, is biographical, drawing on Jungr’s north-western upbringing and celebrates elements of her musical and geographic journey. She signed to her new management company Nick Stewart and Associates and began work on a new theatre show for the Little Angel Theatre Company with director Peter Glanville.

Born and raised in Rochdale and Stockport, Barb has worked with many of the finest musicians and composers in the UK (including Mark Anthony Turnage who wrote ‘About Water’ for her to sing at the re-opening of The South Bank with the London Symphonietta), has toured all over the world with the British Council in the 1990s (Malawi, Cameroon, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Cote D'Ivoire, Sudan), appeared in Australia (2006, 2007 and a sellout tour in 2010), toured across Norway and Holland and performs regularly in New York and across the United States (several seasons at The Cafe Carlyle and Metropolitan Room and Joe’s Pub, New York, Catalina’s in LA, Rrazz Room in San Francisco and for Austin Cabaret).

As a writer and lyricist, Barb’s credits include The Jungle Book (Birmingham Stage Company), The Fabulous Flutterbys (The Little Angel Theatre), Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast and Dick Whittington for The Newbury Corn Exchange, Mabel Stark Tiger Tamer currently in development for Northampton Royal and Derngate and We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, based on Michael Rosen’s legendary book, in development with The Little Angel Theatre Company with director Peter Glanville. Barb lives in London.

Booklet for The Men I Love: The New American Songbook