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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > September > 16 > Entry
ACL: Regina Spektor
Regina Spektor is the little Russian Jewish girl that could - the New Yorker singing her strange little immigrant songs to an ever-widening circle of believers. Her album “Begin to Hope” is one of the great sleeper hits of 2006, a strange singer-songwriter affair that’s been building and building and shows no sign of stopping. This is how some albums (and movies and TV shows and everything else in show business) used to work — one person tells another and suddenly an artist has fan base to write home about. She’s just so old school.
So there was something almost transcendent about seeing tens of thousands of fans screaming for Regina Spektor during her Sunday afternoon set on the AT&T Blue Room stage. There she was, in blue dress and knotted strand of pearls, looking for all the world as if she was playing a recital for her grandparents. Everything about her was grand from her piano to her “who me?” persona.
“Better” chronicled a distressing relationship in sharp chords and her high-pitched, Kate Bushy voice. She played “Poor Little Rich Boy” with one hand while she smacked a stick on the bench to keep time. She strapped on a guitar for “That Time,” which turned into a massive sing-along. And, seriously, who can’ty sing along with lyrics like “Hey remember that time when my favorite colors were pink and green / Hey remember that month when I only ate boxes of tangerines/SO CHEAP AND JUICY!” From her boundless smile to her compelling songcraft to those pearls, there’s just nothing about her you don’t want to root for.
(Photo by Brian K. Diggs AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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By L Frost
September 21, 2007 2:00 PM | Link to this
She was THE brightest spot at ACL this year. I am so glad my friends told me about her. I ran out and bought a CD the next day.
One of the best things about ACL is the new artists you get to “discover.” For me, the first year it was Del Castillo — had seen them before but somehow that was a transcendent performance.
This year it was Regina Spektor.