July 20-26, 2006

Music : Soundadvice

singer

Judy Collins

Last year's Portrait of an American Girl shows Judy Collins in fine form as she takes on great songs and elevates lesser ones: She's perfectly chilly on Joni Mitchell's "That Song about the Midway" and she graciously warms up Train's "Drops of Jupiter." But her take on "Send in the Clowns" — a Grammy winner back in '75 — still gives me nightmares.

—M.J. Fine

With enough jams to fill a greatest-hits collection after just three albums, it may seem like Angie Stone is stalling. But understand this: It takes a while to accumulate relationship drama and turn it into radio gold. In the meantime, a sweaty outdoor show is the right place to get down to "I Wasn't Kidding" and "Brotha."

—M.J. Fine

East Village singer-songwriter, poet and multimedia maven Rachel Sage has been building her fan base with edgy, piano-driven folk-pop. For Tuesday's gig, she'll likely focus on tracks from her recently released second disc, the self-produced The Blistering Sun (Mpress Records), an unflinching musical mediation about living an authentic life.

—Nicole Pensiero

Eddie From Ohio's bald-headed wonder Robbie Schaefer is known for giving the group a good deal of its lyrical wit and vocal warmth. He's also the guy behind that supple guitar work. The understatedly talented Schaefer is out plugging his second solo CD, In the Flesh, a concert album that includes his own songs, a few interesting covers and a smattering of EFO favorites.

—Nicole Pensiero

From her early work with the Bluebelles to the molten hot sounds of the futuristically dressed Labelle, Patti's had it going on like nobody's business. At 62, this sassy vet — who last year recorded with Mary J. Blige and Sir Elton — shows no signs of slowing down, and that four-octave voice can still raise the rafters.

—Nicole Pensiero

Half Chilean, half Brazilian, Joe Vasconcellos, né José, lived the first 20 years of his life in Italy. The story only gets more interesting. His first visit to Chile as a young man felt like a homecoming, so he stayed. For a while. Then there were the years of samba in Brazil. Today he's back in Chile, filling the big halls with his pan-Latin rock-jazz-pop originals.

—Mary Armstrong

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