Adelaide Cabaret Festival – Barb Jungr: Stockport To Memphis

Barb Jungr. Photo by Steve Ullathorne.
Barb Jungr. Photo by Steve Ullathorne.

To say Barb Jungr is a second string Marianne Faithfull isn’t quite fair but she really does have the moves like Jagger.

If Jungr ever grows tired of performing live she could always make a substantial living teaching wanna-be chanteuses with how-to-be-a-Cabaret-performer master classes.

A few of the current crop of professionals at this year’s Cabaret Festival ought to be taking some classes themselves. Jungr leaves them all for dead in terms of how to work a room. She doesn’t just stand there doing the odd generic jig every now and then. Jungr performs the song, releasing that confluence of music and lyrics in an emotional discharge of body movement. At times it’s unintentionally comic but Jungr is experienced enough to understand that and go with the flow – and when her audience responds they respond well.

[pull_left]Jungr is comfortable and relaxed in her own skin and it shows. As far as cabaret goes, Jungr is the real deal and will be remembered as a high point of the 2013 Adelaide Cabaret Festival[/pull_left]

Stockport to Memphis is her latest offering, explaining that Stockport is where she began and Memphis is where she wants to go (she hasn’t been there yet). Jungr explains a lot of things on stage and she does it in an often humorous but always engaging manner. She possess that natural working class approach of being genuinely interested in who she’s talking to whether it’s 500 in an auditorium or 5 people around a kitchen table, and she can sure draw on some heady life experience to draw you in. If that isn’t enough, her voice and interpretations of some of the best songs written in the 20th century certainly is.

Accompanied on piano and vocals by Musical Director Simon Wallace, Jungr also whipped out a harmonica, playing superbly during four numbers.

Highlights included Leonard Cohen’s ‘Everybody Knows’, Hank Williams’ ‘Lost On The River’, Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’, Sam Cooke’s ‘Change Is Gonna Come’, Tom Waits’ ‘Way Down In The Hole’ and Bob Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’, a song which brought about two problems.

First, Jungr tries to pass it off as a feminist song and explains why. Dylan, she claims, wrote it in a woman’s voice in a scenario similar to a Sex In The City coffee shop skit/conversation about a man (Mr Big?). That interpretation seems a stretch but if that’s what Jungr needs to perform it so well, then really, so what? These modernist times empower us all with the abilty to interpret art.

Secondly, and more importantly, many in the audience were expecting more Bob Dylan songs and that expectation wasn’t unreasonable. The promotional material for this gig made much of her ability to re-imagine Dylan’s work. Some punters left very disappointed that she only played the one song.

Jungr is comfortable and relaxed in her own skin and it shows. As far as cabaret goes, Jungr is the real deal and will be remembered as a high point of the 2013 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

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