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At Her Best, At Home: Karrin Allyson at the Dakota
Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor
September 1, 2010

She could have come into the Dakota to sing the longstanding favorites that grace her new By Request… the Best of; she could have brought a keyboard player instead of handling the acoustic piano and Rhodes herself; she could have stuck to her set list rather than taking audience requests; she could have ended the evening with an encore of a trademark tune rather than admitting to closing with one she had never sung before; she could have treated this gig like one more stop on a long tour. And I could just write that Karrin Allyson gets better with each performance, because she does.

Why does Karrin Allyson seem to reach a higher point with each delivery? Because she treats each song, each gig, each member of the audience with utmost respect. She wants us to enjoy our favorites (and that is a long list!) but she also wants us to experience the joy of hearing new arrangements and new tunes, to share her own joy of discovery that gives each set a fresh point of interaction with the audience, be it filled with family and old friends or new encounters. Her 2009 By Request: The Best of Karrin Allyson was represented but did not dominate her Monday night set at the Dakota. Rather, she boldly opened with the seldom sung Richard Rodgers swinger, “Loads of Love,” then countered with one of her bilingual signatures, “Happy Madness (Estrada Branca),” and came back with another new (overdue!) entry to her songbook, “Born to Be Blue.” Before the set ended, she had given us “another Allison” (Mose), the bluesy “I Don’t Worry ‘Bout a Thing;” the samba-seductive (I never heard her do it before) “Shadow of Your Smile” with an a cappella intro; the lovely “Double Rainbow” (from her Brazilian project, Imagina); one from her first recording, “It Might As Well Be Spring;” the perennially requested, always engaging “O Patot;” and a humorously dramatic rendering of “Robert Frost.” She saved her boldest moment for the encore, not a request, not a “best of,” but a solo (“I have never played this before”) knock-out of Anthony Newly’s “No Such Thing As Love.”

As she did on her last visit, Karrin brought minimal accompaniment with just guitarist Rod Fleemans and bassist Larry Kohut, handling both acoustic and electric pianos herself. I don’t recall the Rhodes on past tours but it brought a new vibe to her blues tunes and seemed to put more swing into the samba rhythms, a perfect point of repartee with Fleemans. Some songs were pared down instrumentally to just guitar and bass—the only “break” of sorts that Karrin took during the 70-minute set. And Fleemans and Kohut were more than wallpaper, each contributing up front as well as in support, Kohut particularly effective in a dancing solo on “Happy Madness,” Fleemans breaking out on “Born to Be Blue” and “Double Rainbow,” and jousting with Karrin on “Robert Frost.”

If all the joys of the evening could be summed in one song, it was Jay Leonhardt’s “Robert Frost.” Playfully dramatic in gesture and expression, Karrin’s every word was so cleanly articulated that the lyric sparkled as well as amused, and Fleemans provided a second voice of dialogue with his smirking slides and flutters. The trio was as comfortable on stage as chatting over coffee, and particularly Karrin engaged the audience is if one on one with each of us, a relaxed storyteller on home turf.

Is every performance like this? Or do Karrin’s visits to the Dakota, to the Twin Cities, elicit those special feelings of home comforts, where it is safe to experiment, safe to relax and let the music flow with no pretense or apprehension? I don’t know. I just know Karrin Allyson gets better with each performance. I already said that. Next year I probably will say it again.