Erin McDougald - The Auburn Collection (2004)

Erin McDougald is one of the leading ladies in the Chicago Jazz Scene; her talents at 26 years old have been showcased in venues across the country, even as far reaching as Paris, France and Cologne, Germany. She has undeniable charisma and warmth to her style: She swings with all the savvy of a seasoned veteran; her weightless but pensive grip and release of lyrics mimic the phrasing of a Cool, bygone, era and her ballads seem to permeate even the toughest of critics--leaving a sentiment of deep empathy.

In McDougald's new recording, "The Auburn Collection", the listener is a guest in the unfolding life-stories of the singer as she weaves first-hand experiences into a kind of spectator-scene of others' stories that have influenced her in such a way, only a singer of this depth could divulge. Erin's choice of material is stellar. She revamps and remolds what would-be-considered trite standards into her unique perspective and she excavates lost treasures of the 1940's and beyond, presenting them in her truly individual, endearing style. These tunes gleam with polish and rust.

"The Auburn Collection" is tender and imperfect; sweet and sour...The notes that lack in perfection, Erin substitutes with incomparable humanism: She swings like a pendulum caught in the clock of 1935; soars through the highs and lows of her endless range with clarity and dynamic ferver; moans the shackled tribulations of a Blues' singer; reminisces the not-so-distant past of her youth as if she has outlived her own life, and whispers heartache and discouragement like a teenager. She morphes in and out of her multi-faceted, textured voices, revealing the one constant layer which always lingers beneath--and this is the virtue of a true jazz singer, peeling back the surface of a melody or arrangement and working from the inside-out.

McDougald is not a revolutionary in jazz. She is not avant garde or particularly complex in her presentation of the music. And yet she is far from simple and lightyears from common in her delivery and interpretations. She is a jazz singer--not one prone to scat or apt to lengthy diversions from a palpable melody, but one who knows the subtlty of improvisation and the importance of claiming ownership of the song's sentiments. Erin McDougald is a jazz singer whose youth takes no backseat to experience and empathy. "The Auburn Collection" is in fact, a collection of moments, memories, lifetimes, futures--all narrated through a voice you call "home"... Erin McDougald gingerly takes you through the falls of your own experiences and helps you find your home inside her sweet,sweet song.