|
|
Gem of
Singer Blends Humor, Stories on CD
Dan Rodricks, Baltimore Sun, 11/16/98
A few years ago,
Niki Lee met a funny and charismatic fellow named Paul Ciccone
at the Double T Diner, and he ended up living in her driveway
in Catonsville. He was facing eviction, see, and Lee, being
a good-hearted and trusting soul, invited him to park his mobile
home -- a brown, odd-looking recreational vehicle shaped like
a big kidney bean -- in her driveway and stay there for a while.
Which was fine, except he couldn't shift the vehicle into reverse
and "a while" turned into a year.
The result was a
song -- "I got a guy who lives in my driveway, and the
neighbors think it's kind of weird" -- on Lee's first collection
of original songs. The CD had its coming out last night. It
was a coming out of sorts for Lee, too.
She grew up in the
Washington area and studied voice while in college. She says
she was heavily influenced by the vocal styles of Ella Fitzgerald,
Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. She performed for several
years as Niki Ryan, accompanied by her former husband, Lenny
Williams, and received high marks in brief reviews from Washington
Post music critics.
For the past eight
years, when Lee was not tending bar at the John Steven in Fells
Point, she took up with the local jazz ensembles. She's performed
at the Renaissance Harbor-place Hotel with a trio. She's performed
at Bertha's. I heard her for the first time this summer singing
standards with Dave Stambler's jazz ensemble during a friend's
wedding at Peabody Library. I was impressed then, but even more
so -- and in another way, completely -- when her CD arrived
a couple weeks ago.
It turns out that,
in addition to having a way with jazz standards, Niki Lee has
a superb voice for rockin' pop. She also has a sense of humor,
a talent for writing songs, telling stories and putting her
finger on some complicated feelings. "Paul Ciccone, R.V."
sounds amusing at first but underlying the story is an unpleasant
memory.
The fellow stayed
too long; see, and some other things happened that left Lee
kicking herself. "It's my own fault he hurt me, I should
have known," she sings. "Paul Ciccone lives on the
fringes, and for my sake he's got to get out so I can be free
as I need to be."
One day, Lee says,
the vehicle disappeared from her driveway. She hasn't seen Ciccone
since.
But lets not too
bogged down in the details here and miss the greater point.
Niki Lee is a true talent, a hidden Baltimore gem, who has finally
produced a collection of excellent songs that will make you
laugh and cry. "Here," the title track, is one of
the best songs I've heard about the barroom scene since Billy
Joel's "Piano Man." Lee's "Younger Days"
expresses a sweet sentiment every getting-up-there baby boomer
will appreciate. "There's Nothing You Can Do (that I can't
do for myself)" is a strong-woman anthem, and "Acid
Rain" will bring a smile to the face of every woman who's
been through a love-hate relationship with a guy. "Patterson
Place" is a love song to Lee's friends, a profoundly sincere
tribute to life's greatest treasure. This is good stuff.
You go, girl!
|
