1. Fred Astaire

2. Love Gets In the Way

3. Somebody Leave a Light On

4. Postcards From Downtown

5. Miss Liberty

6. Last Good Taste

7. Monroe

8. Paterson

9. Just Like Jack

10. Satisfied
     

Dayna Kurtz has a voice that soars like an eagle rather than a skylark and also gets down deep in a velvety, well-upholstered and well-worn way. There is so much dynamic variation, her singing transcends mere scribblings. But then her song writing panache is such that one can even become blasé about her voice when considering the songs on Postcards from Downtown.

From the lyrical ache of “Last Good Taste” to the roughly-hewn solidity of “Miss Liberty”, Kurtz strides effortlessly between anguish and explosion, declaration and irony. With accompaniments varying from a full-blown barroom band to her own glorious acoustic slide-guitar, Postcards from Downtown runs the gamut of blues-inflection, southern soul, and cabaret slick.

This album is so breathtakingly incisive, so diverse, yet so complete, one wonders where Ms Kurtz had been hiding all these years. She is a self-confessed “road hog”, addicted to the excitement and delights of continually performing live. Therefore, it’s not surprising this is her debut studio album. For those of us not able to see her shows every night, we can only hope she records again before our copies of Postcards from Downtown are worn out.

©  Straight Words, 2004