Friday, September 05, 2008

Chris Connor- Kansas City

















No more Kansas City wine.

I usually cringe at every rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "Kansas City." I hear it so often that it's just completely played out for me. The impossibly bright voice of hometown girl Chris Connor, however, adds a refreshing twist to the standard. It doesn't hurt that her accompanyists include Oliver Nelson, Joe Newman and Phil Woods. The 1962 session is included on this outstanding compilation. The eighty-year-old is still among us. Here's live footage from 1995.

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I once harbored a schoolboy crush on the waifish "Ways To Be Wicked"-era Maria McKee. And there's no denying the beauty and commercial instincts of Faith Hill. Last night Sarah Buxton found the sweet spot between the two artists at her enchantingly carefree performance on the Power & Light stage. A photo I took doesn't begin to capture Buxton's charm.

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Kansas City Click: Excellent jazz guitarist Mike Moreno performs at Jardine's tonight.

The Crossroads Music Festival is Saturday.

The VooDoo Lounge offers the dream bill of Motorhead, the Misfits and Airbourne on Sunday.

2 comments:

Russell said...

Man, I love every version of that song I can get my hands on. Pretty much every version except for Wilbert Harrison's and the Beatles' is a fun novelty to me. The cornier the better. :-)

The DLC said...

No one toes the line between corny and fantastic better than Mr. Tom Jones. I think he has a great version of Kansas City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95uFl2zG-qI