A TEEN OUT OF TIME NELLIE MCKAY PULLS ONE GENRE AFTER ANOTHER OUT OF HER VERY STYLISH HAT.Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer When talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, you get the eerie feeling that she's channeling Doris Day Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff (born April 3, 1924)[1] is an American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate known as Doris Day. A vivacious blonde with a wholesome image, Day was one of the most prolific actresses of the 1950s and 1960s. and Eminem at the same time. She peppers her speech with dated expressions like ``wonderful'' and ``gee.'' Then she goes and slips in an expletive or two, throwing the other person for a loop. But McKay is charming in that way. An original. The people who describe her use language that evokes pre-'50s America. Interview magazine calls her ``a lounge singer with moxie (language, music) Moxie - A language for real-time computer music synthesis, written in XPL. ["Moxie: A Language for Computer Music Performance", D. Collinge, Proc Intl Computer Music Conf, Computer Music Assoc 1984, pp.217-220]. - and a message.'' She's not afraid to speak her mind about anything from the downfall of chivalry chivalry (shĭv`əlrē), system of ethical ideals that arose from feudalism and had its highest development in the 12th and 13th cent. to the war on terrorism Terrorist acts and the threat of Terrorism have occupied the various law enforcement agencies in the U.S. government for many years. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, as amended by the usa patriot act , doggy yoga to gay marriage. (``All you ever see on TV is poverty and war and ugly-looking political leaders talking,'' she says. ``Then you see this beautiful expression of joy, and it's incredible that that is the thing that's reacted against with an amendment.'') Given all this, it should come as no surprise that the 19-year-old New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of songstress song·stress n. 1. A woman who performs songs, especially ballads or popular songs. 2. A woman who writes songs. See Usage Note at -ess. has put out this year's most talked about debut. The wildly zany ``Get Away From Me'' is a stylish two-CD collection of songs in the tradition of Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley Genre of U.S. popular music that arose in New York in the late 19th century. The name was coined by the songwriter Monroe Rosenfeld as the byname of the street on which the industry was based—28th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in the early , cabaret, rap and synth-pop. Its lyrics intertwine her left-leaning politics with an affinity for pets and her trouble with the opposite sex. ``As long as you give a (expletive) about the lyrics, at all, it has to come from an honest place,'' says McKay, who is in town Monday and Tuesday, fresh from winning plaudits for her appearance at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. That honesty has won her lots of praise from publications like Rolling Stone, which writes ``McKay mixes pathos and goofiness with egghead glee.'' It's also brought her trouble. McKay - who was raised by her actress mother, enrolled in college at age 16 and now lives between Pennsylvania and Harlem with her cats - dropped out of the Manhattan School of Music Founded in 1917, the school is located on Claremont Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City, adjacent to the campus of Columbia University, where it has been since 1969. Many of the students live in the school's residence hall, Andersen Hall. , where she studied jazz, because the teachers didn't get her. And she didn't get them. ``I like to just wing it, go by the seat of my pants and really try different things - sing a standard like it's an opera piece,'' she says. ``I guess I was just a frustrated composer, but I didn't know it at the time. It would, uh ... drive me nuts. I just had to go.'' She did some stand-up stand·up or stand-up adj. 1. Standing erect; upright: a standup collar. 2. Taken, done, or used while standing: a standup supper; a standup bar. , started playing gigs around town - anything for a buck. If barflies wanted to hear ``Brown Eyed Girl'' over and over again, she sang it. Sing-alongs, Judy Garland impersonations, the Beatles - ``I just did whatever would get me through the three hours or six hours (sometimes) of that gig and hopefully garner me the most tips,'' she says. Then came a write-up in a New York magazine that brought her to the attention of record companies. Columbia snatched her away from the four other labels bidding for her, including Blue Note, home of Norah Jones. McKay's album title, ``Get Away From Me,'' is a counter to albums like Jones' ``Come Away With Me,'' which she believes are ``way too friendly.'' And she's just as hard on herself. Like, when McKay recently performed her happy buddy tune, ``The Dog Song,'' on ``The Late Show With David Letterman “Late Show” redirects here. For other uses, see The Late Show. The Late Show with David Letterman is a multiple Emmy Award-winning hour-long weeknight comedy talk show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. .'' ``I just imagined all the people I knew from music school watching that and thinking, 'This is what got her a record contract?' '' McKay is already at work on her second album, which is sure to be a highly anticipated. Just hearing it makes her nervous. ``I hope people still like me.'' Sandra Barrera, (818) 713-3728 sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com NELLIE McKAY Where: Knitting Factory, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. When: 7 p.m. Monday. Tickets: $10. Call (323) 463-0204 or www.knittingfactory.com. Where: Largo, 432 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. When: 8 p.m. Tuesday. Cover: Ranges from $5 to $15. Call (323) 852-1073. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Nellie McKay, 19, titled her debut album ``Get Away From Me'' as a not-so-subtle dig at Norah Jones' ``Come Away With Me.'' |
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