Baby Dee introduced her show at Pilot Light on Saturday as an "evening of dirges." It started out that way for sure, with Dee performing a few originals and hymns on solo harp. That was pretty good, though Dee's booming but undisciplined voice sometimes overwhelmed the harp accompaniment. The cabaret rock arrangements on her latest album, Safe Inside the Day, seem like a better setting for her voice, which ranges from a show-tunes quality baritone to a child-like warbling.
The second part of Saturday's set, with Dee playing accordion, was less pretty good. The songs--populated by gay cops and victims of incontinence--were broadly funny, in the way that saying dirty words in conjunction with religious references can make an audience of grown people laugh. She does win extra points, though, for inventing the gerund of "ass," in a song about a bunch of naked hippies assing up the furniture.
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