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CD review: Elizabeth McQueen ‘The Laziest Girl in Town’
Austin’s former great jazz hope Kat Edmonson — since migrated for the more ambitious pastures of New York City — makes a typically understated guest appearance on “You’re To Blame,” the bustling Bossa nova charmer that opens Elizabeth McQueen’s third solo record. Edmonson might as well softly croon “I’m passing the torch,” because “The Laziest Girl In Town” is the best vocal jazz record to come out of Austin since her “Take to the Sky.”
McQueen’s sweet southern twang — she also sings and plays guitar for Asleep at the Wheel — still drips off every word, but she’s turned her talents from traditional roots rock to 10 tracks of sometimes-smoky, sometimes-sugary jazz. Her original compositions — particularly “Mind of Men,” a brilliantly scalding, tongue-in-cheek, wholly accurate dissection of the male mind — hit that perfect Elephant Room-evoking sweet spot. Asleep at the Wheel’s Jonathan Doyle chips in pristine saxophone, with Floyd Domino — and let us all reflect on how perfect a piano player name “Floyd Domino” is — holding down the keys. But McQueen is really at her best on the covers: the resigned sigh of the Cole Porter-penned title track and a perfectly bittersweet version of the Magnetic Fields’ “You’re My Only Home,” a bone-deep cut off “69 Love Songs.”
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