Friday, May 18, 2007

Feature article in today's South Bend tribune

May 18. 2007 6:59AM
Born to sing Bruce Springsteen


ANDREW S. HUGHES
Tribune Staff Writer

Bruce Springsteen released the album "Born to Run" in 1975.

Alanda Coon was "just a little baby" at the time, the daughter of two parents in New York City who played that and Springsteen's other albums often and loudly while she was growin' up.

"As I grew older, I never grew out of it," she says by telephone from Chicago, unconsciously understating the matter.


A professional actress in Chicago with Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, among others, Coon has now made Springsteen's music part of her professional life with her cabaret show, "Tramps Like Us ... The Music of Bruce Springsteen," which she will perform Saturday at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks.

"I like cabaret because you can tell a story," she says. "It's not like being a cover band, where you just play random songs. It's a little more personal. ... Being an actor, I can tend to act out some of the songs, and, hopefully, the audience will enjoy that."

Coon, of course, isn't the first woman to interpret Springsteen's songs (check out Maria McKee's "Acoustic Tour 2006" album for the most recent example, a heartfelt reading of "Backstreets"), and she does think it makes a difference in how people hear the songs.

"I think because it's coming from a female, people listen a little closer," she says. "Sometimes, people have told us they've heard the words for the first time. ... Obviously, all the songs were written in a man's key, so we've had to tweak the key a little bit, so they sound a little different."

Coon also uses a far smaller band than Springsteen's legendary E Street Band. She'll be joined by three musicians who, collectively, play piano, harmonica, washboard, tambourine and guitar during the show.

"We pare it down, and I think that also helps with getting a different sound," she says. "We do it all acoustically. ... I think we just make everything simpler. While we love the E Street Band and all their bigness and glory, I knew it wasn't realistic for me to grab 10 people and put a band together."

Some of the songs in the show include such Springsteen standards as "Thunder Road," "Growin' Up," "Jungleland," "Born to Run" and "Streets of Philadelphia."

"We have a medley in the show that features cars and nighttime and driving," Coon says. "He has so many songs with that in it."

The show includes no material from such lesser-known albums as "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and "Lucky Town," but it does contain "My Oklahoma Home" from 2006's "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions," "Reason to Believe" from 1982's acoustic "Nebraska" album and "My City of Ruins" from 2002's post-9/11 "The Rising" album.

"The audience may not know it right away, but I know that the songs I pick, it has a beginning, middle and end," Coon says, but she seems reluctant to elaborate upon the narrative she's constructed with Springsteen's songs. Pressed, she eventually says, "It's more about Bruce Springsteen the humanitarian. He's always been very conscious about what's going on in our country. I consider him a very liberal patriot and concerned about people in our country. ... I like his relentless integrity to the music and himself."

Coon points to 1984's "Born in the U.S.A." as an example of Springsteen's humanitarianism. A denunciation of how veterans of the Vietnam War were treated when they returned to the United States, it may be the most misunderstood top 10 single in pop history. Coon remembers how "people blasted that at barbecues" oblivious to the meaning of its lyrics in 1984, just as, she says, Ronald Reagan inappropriately tried to use it as a campaign song that year.

"They probably should have listened to the lyrics before they picked that song, but I think that's the big misconception about Bruce Springsteen's music," she says. "I think people see him as this frat boy who rocks out and drinks beer, but I think he has more depth than that."

Springsteen, Coon says, is a "poet" as a songwriter.

"I think he sees the world in a different way," she says. "He has a romantic side of finding your own place in the world, and a romantic view of the world, and he's not ashamed to reveal that side."

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

I love doing the show.

Which show you ask? Why, the TRAMPS LIKE US show, of course!

It’s been an amazing ride so far. This is the third time I’ve mounted this show and the audiences have been awesome. People are so supportive of it, that it’s hard to wrap my head around. And it’s fun to perform. I’ve been working with some great musicians these past few years and I’m so lucky to have each and every one.

3 more shows to go! Only 2 more in Chicago & then we take it to the Acorn Theatre in Michigan!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The view from my office window right NOW!



Chicago Immigrant Rally- 5/1/07

Last year on this date, it was even bigger.

awesome.
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