The Star-Democrat from Easton, Maryland • Page 51

Friday, September 22, 2000 It's the Weekend! Page 15 Moscatiello: more than just another pretty voice. Johansen: hot, hot, hot rock's most entertaining voices to such a high level. RATING: 9 Lisa Moscatiello: Second Avenue (Wind River) A couple of points are easily noted on former New St. George singer Lisa Moscatiello's sophomore effort. First, she has a beautiful voice, huskily soprano, and believable.

But good voices are a dime a dozen, and the Washington area seems to be obsessed with wonderfully voiced singers whose ideas of witty rhymes always involve celestial beings and pet nicknames. Well, Lisa Moscatiello is no such musician. Her songs here are Celtic- based, folk-tinged pop which never get caught up in any kind of boring genre interpretation. Need proof? Check out Moscatiello's strongest original, the title track, and you'll find her playing Celtic music as rock 'n' roll getup, while her vocal performance is strong enough to bring the song all the way to life. As usual, the covers here, most notably the Eurythmics' "Love is a Stranger," are stronger than the originals.

But Mosciatello's songs are by no means throw-aways. Indeed, they show there is more to this artist than just simply a nice voice and nifty guitar playing. Someone to keep an eye on. RATING 7.5 (out of 10) A A i 5 L.VE jSlfa Singer-songwriter Lisa Moscatiello will perform in concert at Rabbit Hill Music, on Goldsborough Street in Easton, Thursday at 8 p.m. Moscatiello to perform at Rabbit Hill Thursday David Johansen and the Harry Smiths (Chesky Records) On which we get to see the fourth incarnation of rock 'n' roll's strangest changeling.

First, and most importantly, David Johansen arrived on the scene as the singer for the New York glam-punk outfit the New York Dolls, who left a legacy that opened the door for everyone from the Ramones to the Sex Pistols. When that band self-destructed, most notably and famously for the heroin addiction of guitar playerpunk cover boy Johnny Thunders, Johansen embarked on an energetic if unspectacular solo career whose highlight was an Animals cover medley. Sick of playing a poor man's Mick Jagger, Johansen again reinvented himself, this time as a hyped-up lounge singer named Buster Poindexter. While Johansen enjoyed his biggest commercial success 1984's "Hot, Hot, Hot" as Poindexter, it simultaneously made him the butt of jokes, and critics left him for dead while reminiscing about "the Dolls." Now, Johansen is back, sans Poindexter getup, with uh, blues album? Yep, it's true. Covering the likes of Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters and John Hurt, Johansen and his Harry Smiths who are probably overqualif ied for this kind of bluesmanship have been rehearsing this routine in New York clubs for a couple of years now.

This new album is the fruit of their labors, grown in the rich, alluvial soil of the Mississippi Delta. After one listen, you'll realize that not only is it better than you thought it would be, but it's actually pretty good. It's tough to breathe life into something as tired and picked-over as da' blues, but on this album Johansen seems the perfect choice to do just that. While this albums moves glacially compared to his other oeuvres, his gritty growl and unusual voice offers the kind of strand-ed-on-the-side-of-the-road believability that most "blues-men" are unable to capture. The Harry Smiths, named for the famous anthologist whose Anthology of American Folk Music was the source of many of the covers here, bring a liveliness to these songs that is missing from most folk-blues outfits.

Of course, the uncredited arrangements done by Bob Dylan help to that end. A solid effort a the way through, the album's highlights include "James Alley "Old Dog Blue" and "Somebody Buy Me a Drink," through which Poindexter staggered for years. The most gratifying thing here, though, is the return of one of si' 1 MAR LEY'S CAFE Island, Southwestern, Seafood Steaks TUESDAYS Oldies' Night with DJ 8 p.m. 50c Tacos every Tues. WEDNESDAYS Karaoke 8 pm-1 am 12 price Prime Rib Night THIRSTY THURSDAYS TC DANCE PARTY Chris Startt or Mark the Maniac RAFTS LAST DECK MUSIC PARTY TILL 2001 RAVENS AT HOME $1 DRAFTS FREEBIES WHEN WE SCORE DRAFTS Open 6 Days A Week Closed Mondays 4814 Madison Canning House Road Madison, MD 21648 410-228-6920 THE BEST SOUND LICHTS FROM OCEAN CITY TO BALTIMORE" alongside the Eurythmics' "Love Is a Stranger," Abbey Lincoln's bossa-inflected "Throw it Away" and a sensuous Northern Irish love song called "The Lass of Glenshee." On Second Avenue, she also unveils the debut recording of "Sleepin' Late," a ballad penned in 1965 by Motown songwriter Fangette Willett.

In recent years Moscatiello's original songs have become a staple of her live performances, and fans will recognize the catchy title song of her new CD, a dryly humorous look at unrequited love; as well as the driving "Fugitive," cowritten with Arthur Loves Plastic's Bev Stanton, and her penetrating contemporary folk ballads "Night Bird," "Bed by the Window" and "Angry Town." In a recent review of Second Avenue, the Washington Post says her original "songs not only sit comfortably alongside the more familiar tunes; the best of them prove that Moscatiello's talent extends well beyond her remarkable vocal and interpretive gifts." Admission is $10. Reservations are recommended. Call (410) 822-8443. EASTON Award-winning singer Lisa Moscatiello will give a solo concert at Rabbit Hill Music at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept.

28. The intimate storefront concert hall is at 17 Goldsborough St. Moscatiello is the lead singer for the Manhattan-based Celtic band Whirligig, and once sang lead for the folk-rock band the New St. George. With roots in Irish folk, acoustic pop, country and jazz, she has been compared to Annie Lennox, Sandy Denny and kd lang.

In a review of her most recent album, Second Avenue, Billboard magazine called her voice "one of the finest vocal instruments in all of folk-tinged pop," and the folk and world music magazine Dirty Linen has called Moscatiello "one of the finest singers in America today." Moscatiello's first album, Innocent When You Dream, (which won the Washington Area Music Association's award for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year) established her as a singer able to embrace a wide variety of songs and make them her own. On Second Avenue she continues in this vein, with Jesse Winchester's sultry "Biloxi" IE.