The Bird: Inara George issues "An Invitation"
Inara George in concert Saturday night with Van Dyke Parks at Largo at the Coronet: well, "This is ethereal stuff!" as my wife Phoebe whispered to me halfway through the show.
Backed by a small band -- mandolin, acoustic bass, a drum kit, Parks on electric piano, with George on electric guitar -- the Largo gig really was magic from start to finish. George, a disarming singer, a sweet and light and bright stage presence, has at 34 also suddenly shown herself to be a major American songwriter, with every sign of being one for the ages.
I knew a little bit about George's work with the L.A. band The Bird and the Bee, but had never been a big listener, nor seen her live. Along with everyone else in this rock 'n' roll world, I had been a fan of her father Lowell's great '70s band, Little Feat -- but those are big shoes to fill, and you hate to place the wonderful sins of the fathers onto the expectations of the kids.
Her extraordinary new record "An Invitation," art songs sung by George backed by an orchestra with arrangements by Parks, has changed all that. It's my favorite album in months, a fixture both on my iPod during morning runs and through the bigger speakers in the living room. Given the various tastes at home, it's hard to find anything that works well for the Santogold-rockin' teen and the more classically inclined mom and the indie/Americana leanings of the dad.
But here it is. And a question about just what makes "An Invitation" so weirdly wonderful was answered by Parks in a recent essay by Jim Fusilli in the Wall Street Journal: "'The rhythms you hear are counter-rhythms,' he said, and indeed the strings, brass and woodwinds seem to be reacting. To what I couldn't tell until Mr. Parks explained that they're responding to a guitar that doesn't appear in the final versions of Ms. George's songs."
Sometimes, as the great pop producers know, the best addition is a subtraction.
Lord knows Parks, for 40 years an L.A. fixture but with his Mississippi youth still there in his accent when I visited with him briefly Saturday night after the show, is one of those producers. The Beach Boys' "Smile," Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, The Byrds -- he's been everywhere. A great good friend of Lowell George, Parks was even present in Baltimore at Inara's birth.
Now they are making beautiful music together. I've half a mind to chuck it all and get to the Crossing Borders festival in The Hague Nov. 20, when George and Parks will recreate "An Invitation" with full orchestra.
Here's Parks on the right with someone on the left who he said was a terrifically important personage but whose name I failed to catch:
