Wino in the House

Lately I've been grooving to this new Amy Winehouse album, Back to Black. Amy who? She's been described as a cross between Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill, and I guess that's about right, as far as it goes.

But you guessed it, it isn't far enough. I haven't heard her first album, a smash in her native UK and apparently jazz and hip-hop–oriented, but Back to Black is all Motown, at least instrumentally speaking. The music is reminiscent of 1960s girl bands, heavy on the horns and the pathos, and Winehouse's voice is... well, you really have to hear it. Which, this being the age of the intarwebs, you can, all easy like and stuff.

At 23, she's also apparently already a legendary drunk and pothead, but -- according to our friends at CNN -- "Singer's 'debauched' image not whole story." Indeed, if she keeps her shit together, she should have a nice career ahead of her.

In other music news -- the Ann Arbor Summer Festival: OMFG. They have a killer lineup this year, and I'm going to have trouble affording and possibly finding people to go with me to all the shows I'd like to attend. Lyle Lovett and k.d. lang on one bill! Pink Martini! Big Bad Voodoo Daddy! It's so... money. Literally and figuratively. And on top of that, Morrissey's coming to the Michigan Theatre next month.

Maybe I need to take a cue from the downtown bums and start up my own panhandling "business"...