Eric Yves Garcia: Pour Spirits

Marilyn Lester | December 1, 2015

Eric Yves Garcia

Pour Spirits

Metropolitan Room, NYC, November 25, 2015

Reviewed by Marilyn Lester for Cabaret Scenes

Photo: Kevin Alvey

Pour Spirits showcases Eric Yves Garcia in an entirely new way—with piano idle onstage, Garcia stands before the microphone as a singer-raconteur. The show is an autobiography set to music, delivered with charm, laughter, sophistication and self-effacing honesty. Beginning with Martin Sexton’s “Can’t Stop Thinking About You,” the songs that follow illuminate a tale of after-hours bars, broads and booze. Garcia possesses a warm baritone, but it’s his command of phrasing and timing that drive the story with power and poignancy. Drawing from several genres of music, such as the Avett Brothers’ “I Wish I Was,” Jule Styne and Susan Birkenhead’s “It’s Sunday,” Rod McKuen’s “Love’s Been Good to Me,” and “Up to My Neck in You” (Angus Young/Malcolm Young/Bon Scott), Garcia perfectly intertwines the music with his smart writing, much influenced by noir writer Raymond Chandler.

For the last decade, Garcia has regularly worked the piano bar at Chez Josephine and his take on his relationship with its colorful late owner, Jean-Claude Baker, is both hilarious and tragic, mirrored in Cy Coleman and Ira Gasman’s “Use What You Got” and Leonard Cohen and Anjani Thomas’ “Blue Alert.” At about the three-quarter mark, thinking perhaps a little editing wouldn’t hurt now, Garcia made a welcome turn into Charles Trenet’s “L’âme des poètes” delightfully sung in French. Tom Waits’ “(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night’ melting into Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” brought the night crawl to its conclusion—almost. Garcia’s encore, Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes,” brought the reveal: the story was never about booze and broads, after all, but about growing through experience. Quite possibly the spirit of Philip Marlowe was hunkered over a Jack Daniels in a back banquette, whispering low into the whiskey, “Kid, you did real good.”

Pour Spirits was directed by Lauren Fox, who knows well how to construct a sharp, intelligent and outré show. Ritt Henn was on bass and Musical Director Peter Calo played banjo and guitars.

Tags: American Songbook, And So It Goes, Angus Young, Anjani Thomas, Avett Brothers, Billy Joel, Blue Alert., Bon Scott, Broadway Musicals, Cabaret, Cabaret Reviews, Cabaret Scenes, Can’t Stop Thinking About You, Charles Trenet, Chez Josephine, Clubs, Composers, Cy Coleman, Eric Yves Garcia, Great American Songbook, I Wish I Was, Ira Gasman, It’s Sunday, Jack Daniels, Jazz, Jazz Singers, Jean-Claude Baker, Jule Styne, Kevin Alvey, Kris Kristofferson, L'ame des poetes, Lauren Fox, Leonard Cohen, Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night, Love’s Been Good to Me, lyricists, Malcolm Young, Marilyn Lester, Martin Sexton, Metropolitan Room, Musicals, Musicians, Nightclubs, NYC, Peter Calo, Philip Marlowe, Popular Song, Pour Spirits, Raymond Chandler, Revues, Ritt Henn, Rod McKuen, Show Tunes, Singers, Songbook, Standards, Sunday Mornin Comin Down, Supper Clubs, Susan Birkenhead, Tom Waits, Up To My Neck in You, Use What You Got, Venues, Vocalists