Interview: Jeff Harnar Revisits the '80s in BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH at Don't Tell Mama

Award-winning cabaret and concert artist Jeff Harnar returns to Don’t Tell Mama this month with a new concert, Blame It on My Youth. Performances will take place on Thursdays in February at 7 pm (February 5, 12, 19, and 26).

Harnar will be joined by longtime music director Alex Rybeck as they revisit songs they first performed together at Don’t Tell Mama in the 1980s, when their musical collaboration began. The concert takes its title from the Oscar Levant song “Blame It on My Youth,” one of the first pieces the duo performed during that period, and examines how lyrics first sung decades ago resonate differently over time.

Blame It on My Youth features songs by Irving Berlin, Kander & Ebb, Richard Rodgers, Jerry Herman, Stephen Sondheim, Charles Aznavour, Paul Simon, Carole King, and Billy Joel.

The promotional photograph for the concert, pictured above, was taken by Michael Ian, who also photographed one of the original Don’t Tell Mama posters from the 1980s that still hangs in the venue.

Read a conversation with Harnar below about the new concert.

How does it feel to be revisiting material you worked on back in the ‘80s? 

First and foremost, it’s a gift.  That Alex and I found each other all those years ago and are still here to do this is a miracle to me.  As for revisiting the song choices and arrangements, we certainly can see how we were working to figure “us” out musically, with plenty that was cringeworthy and hopefully enough worthy of sharing 40 years later.  Our North Star has been to look at the lyrics I sang when I was 26 and how my perspective on them has changed at age 66. 

How has your life changed since you first started performing?

The single biggest change since I started performing at the age of 9 was my voice changing!  Since I started working with Alex in 1983, however, the biggest change has been the gift of time.  We’ve had years of experience as both people and performers that hopefully inform what we do now.  And certainly, getting sober has been a great game changer. I feel very different inside than I did back then.  My life on this planet seems much more manageable.  And astonishingly, I’m now a senior citizen on Medicare and Social Security … and even the buses kneel for me now.  And hooray for the miracle [of] social media to spread the word. 

Have you made any updates or adjustments to your arrangements of these songs as you’re preparing to sing them again?

The keys have been lowered to protect the elderly!  And there have been other small tweaks which Alex calls “taste.” 

Do you have an example of a song where your perspective has changed from when you first sang it?

“Blame It On My Youth,” our title song, is a clear example of a song where the lyrics take on a time-worn irony when the broken heart of today can still be blamed on the foolish naïveté of heart.  The inspiration for this theme was planted in 1991 when Alex and I opened at The Algonquin Hotel with our “1959 Broadway Songbook” and Rosemary Clooney was appearing at Rainbow and Stars.  Rex Reed wrote that we both were singing the hopeful song “I Wish It So,” me in my 30’s, she in her 60’s, and that both interpretations were valid, with hers especially poignant, so given her life experience. 

What else have you been doing or working on lately aside from this show?

I am currently directing new shows for Craig Rubano, Linda, Kahn, Therese Lee and Becca Kidwell, and am already at work with Andrea Marcovicci planning the opening night of October’s Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Convention which will be a tribute to Mabel’s musical legacy.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

This experience affirms to me to make what’s happening now what I want it to be … today the “now” has become “then,” and I’m profoundly grateful to be able to look back with curiosity, compassion and celebration.  And I’m especially grateful to have Alex, one of mt most significant fellow travelers still by my side.

Learn more about Jeff Harnar on his website at jeffharnar.com