Lucy Kaplansky (Club Helsinki, Jan. 4)
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., January 5, 2001) - Not just any singer-songwriter can walk into a bar and grab the attention of a crowd for nearly two hours, especially when much of what she plays is unknown or unrecorded material. But Lucy Kaplansky did just this on Thursday night at Club Helsinki, and that’s why she’s just one of the best at what she does.

What separates the ordinary singer-songwriter from the extraordinary is, well, something extraordinary. Something distinctive, in style, content, or tone, that sets a performer apart from the muddled, misguided masses who think all it takes is an acoustic guitar, three chords and adolescent introspection disguised as poetry.

In Kaplansky’s case, several things set her apart and allow her to directly connect with listeners. For one, there is her fierce, determined approach, the way she bangs on her guitar and steps up to the mike with a scowl on her face and launches into her song with all cylinders racing..

Then, there’s what comes out. There is her deep, breathy tone, full of earned regret and insinuating sensuality. There are her pithy couplets that jump out at you: “Guilty as sin/ I know where you’ve been,” “Go ahead, do whatever you want/This is all about you,” “Enough with the mood lighting/I’m not in the mood,” “You’ve read `The Road Less Traveled’/You think you know everything,” and “I know what you are/You’re the thief who steals from your friends.”

It’s inevitable that a lot of singer-songwriter material will take heartbreak of one sort or another for its focus. But it’s not inevitable what the writer does with the experience. For many, the choice boils down to “woe is me.” Not for Kaplansky, however. She doesn’t get depressed, she gets angry, and she lets him have it. Songs like “The Thief,” “Turn the Lights Back On” and “End of the Day” hearken back to Bob Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street” in their witty, sophisticated vitriol. That Kaplansky delivers it with a sultry sneer just makes it all the more delectable.

Not that she’s all tough and prickly. Kaplansky can be as kind and caring as the next sensitive new-age gal. “It’s Time to Go,” one of the many new songs she performed on Thursday, most of which are destined for her long-awaited next album, paid a visit to a nursing home where a 13-year-old Lucy saw her grandmother in the full-blown stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

But even when she sings a love song it has an edge. The narrator of “Scorpion” promises to “sting you with a kiss from my lips.” In “Ten Year Night,” a couple are driving down the highway doing 80 at night, one sleeping while the other is reminiscing about the night they met in terms worthy of a bodice-ripper.

Many of the songs Kaplansky debuted on Thursday suggest she has been listening to or channeling music from the ‘60s, particularly the Beatles. One could easily imagine “I Know Where You’ve Been” recorded in a full-blown British Invasion rock style with Beatlesque harmonies. “No More Excuses, Baby,” another ‘60s-ish, minor-key folk-rocker, comes ready-made with drama and crescendos worthy of Roy Orbison. And “Don’t Mind Me,” which Kaplansky has written for an upcoming Sherman Alexie film, has a classic girl-pop feel to it.

Kaplansky also peppered her set with covers of other people’s songs. She opened with a dark, acidic version of Greg Brown’s already venomous “Small Dark Movie,” reprised “I Know What Kind of Love This Is” by The Nields, which she has recorded with the superstar folk trio Cry Cry Cry, and also played a Paul Brady tune. She told an entertaining story about how she wound up singing backup on a Bryan Ferry recording session in London, and sang the Roxy Music hit “More Than This” as a tribute, turning that new-wave bit of proto-techno-pop into a warm folk song.

Kaplansky is a major star on the new-folk scene, regularly headlining top folk clubs and festivals across the nation. The chance to see her and other performers of her ilk, people like Laura Love, the Nields, Cliff Eberhardt, and Stacey Earle, in the intimate confines of Club Helsinki - where the performers interact with the audience, responding to requests and engaging in a real dialogue, and hang out afterwards talking to fans and signing autographs - is a real gift to our community.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Jan. 6, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]