JAMIE CUTLER AT THE DUPLEX AND ON THE RECORD

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I’ve spent a good deal of time this week trying to find just the right words to describe the singular voice of Grammy nominated country music singer/songwriter Jamie Cutler. The best I can do is some fascinating mix of June Carter Cash, Bonnie Tyler and Nanci Griffith (one of my all time favorites!) with just a dash of Olive Oyl thrown in for good measure. Someone else described her as a female Bob Dylan.

Regardless of how I paint it, the point is that she certainly possesses her own particular sound and a wacky, sort of in-her-own-little-world stage persona that teeters right on the edge of excluding the audience, and yet is oddly inviting. The longer and deeper I delve into observing the performances of others, it becomes more and more apparent to me that it’s so often more about how the song is presented and the artist absorbing and relating the story in their own personal way, as opposed to the beauty of the voice itself.

On a recent evening at the Duplex Ms. Cutler worked her way through a  delectable  series of songs while accompanying herself on guitar and backed by terrific Nashville musicians Joe First (Jose Primero, as Cutler refers to him) on piano (and accordion) and Sam Cooper on guitar.  Half way through the program, they launched into a traditional country "round robin," where each musician took turns taking the lead and the others lending vocal and musical support. This gave each a chance to shine and provided a welcome diversity of styles with Joe (Jose) relating his humorous half sung, half spoken stories and Sam rocking the house with a Randy Newmanesque brand of New Orleans blues.

But make no mistake, the real star here is Ms. Cutler’s songwriting, and a good many of  these fantastic just-made-for-the-airwaves tunes are represented in a couple of albums I had the good fortune to carry home with me. 2004 release Flying Ninety Niners is dedicated to her mother, Lois Cutler, a member of the famous International Organization of Women Pilots, and contains such gems as “She Can’t Remember to Forget Him” and “I Believe In Love.”  The more recent 2008 release, Love Looks Good On You, is a rather marvelous collaboration with Southwest Florida singer/songwriter/musician/forward-slash user (!) John R. Butler, and grants us the pleasures of the gorgeous title track, the terrific and tender “Passenger Side,” and most especially the oh-so-ready-to-be-a-hit “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” which as Jamie accurately related during her show, would have sat just dandily on Ricky Nelson or Roy Orbison. There are also nine bonus tracks displaying how well these finely crafted songs sound in the hands of others.

While in town, Ms. Cutler is also appearing at the annual International Cringefest performing the infamous, in-so-many-ways-incorrect, soon to be classic tune she co-wrote with John R. Butler, “Hand of The Almighty” (God Will **** You Up), which has made her into a YouTube sensation. She closed her Duplex show with this astounding bit of advice and really, after that, what more is there to say?!

Jamie Cutler's CDs are available online at www.cdbaby.com