“When I was four years old I used to sit in my room and listen to records on my little pink plastic record player. I would listen to a line in a song, and then pick up the needle and sing the line about a hundred times per line per song. Then one day I saw a Barbie doll dressed in a little green mermaid dress with a tiny microphone. She was the “Singer Barbie”. As soon as I saw her, I knew exactly what I was going to be.” That singer is Kelly Flint, the voice of the jazz-noir combo Dave's True Story, who are admired as one of New York's most focused and consistent acts. Ms. Flint has put the finishing touches on Drive All Night, her debut solo release on BePop Records. During the past year she has been developing her club set in the service of her sharply personal songs. Musically, it's a diagonal move. Through five albums and countless gigs, Ms. Flint has been the singer, actress and interpreter of the romantic minefield generated by the compositions of songwriter/guitarist David Cantor. While navigating the lyrical intricacies and eccentric subject matter of Gotham's most cerebral lounge act, Ms. Flint began hearing another voice in her head—her own. With encouragement from a mob of musical confidants, including Mr. Cantor, Ms. Flint has brought to the fore a voice that had been, up to now, waiting in the wings. Anyone familiar with Dave's True Story will immediately recognize Ms. Flint. Her style is a femme-fatale's alto, unornamented except for a judiciously applied burr which she uses like a drummer uses his brushes. But whereas Dave's True Story works in dense, cinematic strokes, the songs of Drive All Night are lean and direct—they are the "indie" movie by comparison. She wastes no time in establishing her turf. The songs are built around her acoustic guitar and the arrangements, whether hushed or assertive, are all hewn with a dark urgency. The result is music that is folky in texture only. As with most storytelling, Ms. Flint's muse seems guided by the artist's traditional desire to fix the mistakes in the world. And whenever the arrival of pain defies logic, don't sweat the logic. In "Cartoon," she uses the illogic of cartoons as a painkiller: "Where the guy falls off the cliff and he's flat/… And a little puff of smoke comes up/ and it's funny and he rises up out of the dust/ And that's the way it is, isn't it?" Or consider the countrified ballad of "Marilena," who doesn't stand still for the falling anvil: "No one can hold her down when her mind's made up/… You just change your clothes/ put on some make-up and go." Yet, despite the first-person focus of these dramas, Ms. Flint insists the songs are not pages from her diary. "My songs aren't autobiographical. I take a hodgepodge and turn it into string. Besides, most of the time I write, I'm a guy. If I write a first person short story, I'm always a guy. Usually a guy I’ve never actually met in real life. Most of the time it's true with my songs. I don't know why. The thing for me is that I get to hitch a ride and go with it." This is Ms. Flint at her breeziest—her vocal stays at the center of the action, with guitars, mandolins, upright bass and violins (a cornucopia of strings) providing dignified support above and below. The uncluttered mix grants Ms. Flint plenty of breathing room and, by extension, the stories in the songs are allowed their melancholy and intrigue which comes with the realization that having strength trumps having answers. The trick that distinguishes Kelly Flint is how she serves this dish with a cognac and a double espresso and still manages to make it soothing. http://www.imeem.com/groups/3ByXa61h,kelly_flint/ Delta 0 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss BePop Records BePop Records http://www.imeem.com/groups/3ByXa61h/music/QF9Fduo0/kelly_flint_never_unless/ Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:06:48 -0000 <div><a href="http://www.imeem.com/groups/3ByXa61h/music/QF9Fduo0/kelly_flint_never_unless/"><img border="0" src="http://icons-p1.imeem.com/QF9Fduo0.jpg" title="Click to play this song"/></a></div> PtkyGOBLL0 BePop Records http://www.imeem.com/groups/3ByXa61h/music/r7vl0nu-/kelly_flint_blood_and_bone/ Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:06:48 -0000 <div><a href="http://www.imeem.com/groups/3ByXa61h/music/r7vl0nu-/kelly_flint_blood_and_bone/"><img border="0" src="http://icons-p3.imeem.com/r7vl0nu-.jpg" title="Click to play this song"/></a></div> JFDb6w39cW BePop Records http://www.imeem.com/groups/3ByXa61h/music/zZ0DkTUZ/kelly_flint_drive_all_night/ Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:06:47 -0000 <div><a href="http://www.imeem.com/groups/3ByXa61h/music/zZ0DkTUZ/kelly_flint_drive_all_night/"><img border="0" src="http://icons-p3.imeem.com/zZ0DkTUZ.jpg" title="Click to play this song"/></a></div> MP1sTJV7tY