SUSAN WINTER/LOVE ROLLS ON

SUSAN WINTER/LOVE ROLLS ON

If you happened to miss the wonderful Susan Winter’s lovely show Love Rolls On last year at the Metropolitan Room, you’re in luck! She has just released a live cd of that engagement, and it’s as if you are there for an extremely enjoyable, heartfelt and charming evening of cabaret. Ms. Winter was pursuing a theatrical career before she took time off to have a family and work for the New York Board of Education, but boy is she back with a vengeance!

In just the past three years, she has produced three original shows, been nominated for a MAC Award and won the 2009 Bistro Award for best female vocalist. This centerpiece of Love Rolls On is Ms. Winter’s touching story of her mother and father’s romance and how she got an inside view of it by discovering the letters that they had written to each other while just newly married, and yet separated by the military.

Several of the songs touch on this (“All My Tomorrows,” “Isn’t It A Pity,” “Only You,” and how finding these letters strengthened her relationship with her father after her mother’s passing.  Most of the songs are familiar (“Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home,” “Small World,” “Just In Time,”, “You’ll See”), and yet take on a new life as woven into the story (the hilariously deadpan “Mr. Monotony” with an equally hilarious lead-in about her mother’s bridge games), with exquisite arrangements and  in Ms. Winter’s  infectious joy at being back doing what she  loves, singing! (“Lucky To Be Me,” “I’ve Got The World on A String”). But, we’re the one’s who should consider ourselves lucky.

Ms. Winter has a gorgeous, rich, warm voice and a persona to match, that makes you feel instantly at home and comfortable. It’s like spending an evening with a dear friend who just happens to be able to sing her head off! All of these things that were so apparent in the live show have been perfectly captured on this recording, with just the right amount of the patter included to illuminate the song  choices. Although, even without any explanation, it’s a terrific collection of songs sung in Ms. Winter’s appealing, laid-back, somewhat jazz-tinged style that grows even more enjoyable with each listen. And I simply must mention the  charming duet she shares with Geoff Stoner (and his ukelele!) on “I Love The Way You’re Breaking My Heart.”  Why, it’s terribly, terribly, terribly irresistible! And so is this album.