Barb Jungr: The Men I Love: The New American Songbook (NAIM)

Odd how the "Great American Songbook" only covers about 50 years (roughly 1915-65). Part of that comes from simple snobbery, but part is that an uptempo swing version of a rock song too often comes off like a lame joke or cheap irony. British cabaret singer Barb Jungr, who's been making intriguingly programmed albums for 15 years, avoids that problem here through judicious song selection and a stylistic tendency to stick to ballads.

While her choices occasionally look incongruous on paper, it turns out that a slow, quiet version of Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" makes some interesting aspects of the song clearer, and having a cabaret album open with Clive Bell playing shakuhachi is worth points by itself.

Certainly great American songs have been written by Jimmy Webb ("Wichita Lineman"), Paul Simon ("My Little Town"), Bob Dylan ("You Ain't Going Nowhere," a successful uptempo interpretation, though it's more New Orleans bar than 52nd St.), Holland-Dozier-Holland ("This Old Heart of Mine"), Todd Rundgren ("I Saw the Light"), Bruce Springsteen ("The River"), Leonard Cohen ("Night Comes On"), Neil Diamond ("I'm a Believer," "Red Red Wine"), Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman ("Can't Get Used to Losing You" in a witty medley with "Red Red Wine") and yes, David Gates of Bread ("Everything I Own"). And while "Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache" ain't great, it works in this context.

If cabaret is to have a future (and sizable audience) beyond senior citizens, it will likely sound like this. - Steve Holtje

Barb Jungr appears at the Metropolitan Room May 18 – 23
34 West 22nd St.

Mr. Holtje is a Brooklyn-based poet and composer who splits his time between editing Culturecatch.com, working at the Williamsburg record store Sound Fix, and editing cognitive neuroscience books for Oxford University Press. No prizes for guessing which pays best.