Natalie Douglas performs her show Hello Dolly: The Music of Dolly Parton at the Crazy Coqs, London. Picture: Seth Walters
Natalie Douglas performs her show Hello Dolly: The Music of Dolly Parton at the Crazy Coqs, London until 8 November.
The whole concept of Natalie Douglas’ show intrigued me from the start – two buxom ladies, both having spent time in America’s south, and both lovers of blues and country music, but in other ways very different. Parton – petite with a sweet, high-pitched country twang, and Douglas – a lady with a huge voice and known, certainly here in London, for bringing us jazz, blues and her own take on the songs of singers such as Nina Simone.
Douglas, though, is an assured vocal musician and a trained actress. I had every confidence this show would work, and she does not disappoint. She opens with Parton’s anthem ‘Coat of Many Colours’ on the familiar theme of material poverty, but a home rich in love, which is echoed later in the evening with ‘Rocky Top’ (Felice & Boudleaux Bryant).
Parton’s own songs are juxtaposed with other work she covered, sometimes with artists such as Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on Neil Young’s ‘After the Gold Rush’, and the wonderful ‘Here You Come Again’ (Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil).
Douglas’ intelligent re-working of Parton’s continually heard and arguably overplayed songs, together with her rich deep vocal tones in ‘Jolene’, and her stunning arrangement of ‘I Will Always Love You’, compel us to connect with the material with a new visceral intensity. We hear meanings and draw perceptions totally anew. The starkness of either a single instrument, or sometimes two with Shanna Sharp’s guitar, accompanying the honeyed yet powerfully resonant voice that belongs to Douglas, suits the simplicity of the material so well, it is a wonder that amplified and more heavily produced versions are made at all.
Standout numbers are difficult to choose in this universally excellent programme. Some of the more unusual items however are the touching and resolute ballad ‘I Just Might’, re-launched by Parton as a solo after its success in her musical Nine to Five where it was featured as a group number; the yearning ballads ‘Down From Dover’ and ‘Little Sparrow’; and the surprising and effective inclusion of the hymn ‘Farther Along’ (Rev. W.A. Fletcher).
As well as the gentle sound of singer/songwriter guitarist Sharp, Douglas is joined on stage by the ever robust playing of her pianist/musical director Mark Hartman, both of whom also provide additional vocal harmony.
Fiona-Jane Weston
www.brasseriezedel.com/crazy-coqs/natalie-douglas-3
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.