Review: Jennifer Nettles BROADWAY UNDER THE MISTLETOE at Town Hall by Guest Reviewer Jennifer Leigh Houston

This holiday season we at Broadway World Cabaret have invited artists from the club and concert community to join us in reporting on the happenings around town. Artists with a particular focus in their own work will be joining us to give our readers their take on shows for which they have a special interest. Their one and only instruction from our editorial desk was: "This is not a critique, it is a review - go and enjoy the show and report back on what you saw." The resulting stories are planned as an in-depth, fun, and relatable look into the various corridors of the club and concert art form, from the people who, daily, walk those corridors. We hope you enjoy these special articles and we wish you the happiest of holidays. --Stephen Mosher, Editor, Broadway World Cabaret

Jennifer Nettles Live from The Town Hall

BROADWAY UNDER THE MISTLEOE

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Jennifer Nettles SLEIGHED at her one-night-only Town Hall extravaganza BROADWAY UNDER THE MISTLETOE. And I think Jennifer would forgive the pun since she so adorably and lovingly referred to her all-female string quartet as "Belles with Bows" and her all-male horn section as "Beaus with Bells." And boy, oh boy, could those belles and beaus blow and bow.

For those of us who only thought we knew Jennifer Nettles from her popular country music playlist (where the heck have I been? Still back in the early 2000s I guess), we were delighted, dazzled, and blown away. This was a delightful version of a Christmas show, with country/soul/gospel songs that expressed the magic of the season while mostly not being Christmas-specific.

In her diaphanous, sparkly pantsuit Jennifer was a vision of Christmas wonder. She kicked off the show with "Go Tell It On The Mountain," amplified by six members of the gospel choir Broadway Inspirational Voices (BIV), and the other twelve members of her band. She managed to get our hearts racing and our blood pumping with this rousing gospel arrangement (which is also the start of her 2016 Christmas album "To Celebrate Christmas"). Ms. Nettles brought things down a bit with a country/pop version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" Her bright, soaring voice brought a tear to my eye. Jennifer is such a joyful performer it's impossible to remain immovable.

After opening the show with music from her Christmas album, Jennifer introduced the audience to her new album, released in June, "Always Like New." The album is a series of Broadway show tunes reimagined in her country/gospel style; these would comprise most of the songs sung this evening. She described the album as "one of the most rewarding albums I've ever done."

Throughout the night Jennifer mixed up styles with ease and ferocity. We journeyed from straight-up gospel with her foot-stompin', hand clappin' arrangement of "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" (Oklahoma), to her famous country-pop belt with an absolutely stunning version of "It All Fades Away" (The Bridges of Madison County) in which her bassist/singer Annie Clements joined her on vocals to ensure that there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house, and then melted us with her dreamy version of "Almost Like Being in Love" (Brigadoon).

Nettles' heartfelt and soulful R&B rendition of Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home" gave me a new appreciation for the 1977 radio hit, but the best part of the evening for this reviewer was the unexpected gems, like "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" (My Fair Lady) done with two acoustic guitars, strings, and upright bass. There's something funny about the phrase "abso-bloomin'-lutely" being drawled in an American southern accent, yet the country arrangement of the Lerner and Loewe song oddly works. Eliza Doolittle's longing to escape economic privation fits as organically in the American heartland as anywhere.

Among the other mind-blowing moments of the evening were "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat" (Guys & Dolls), and "The Little Drummer Boy," with Annie Clements, again, singing her glorious harmonies. "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat" was a bluesy, Southern Baptist gospel interpretation, and with the solid backing of the BIV choir, Jennifer absolutely tore the house down. I mean TORE!

Other delights were a bluegrass version of "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute" (Barnum), and "Wait for It" (Hamilton), "Anyone Can Whistle" (a beautiful Sondheim tribute). And of course, it wouldn't be right to leave her country fans in the lurch, so near the end of the show, she whipped out her guitar and performed two of the best-loved songs of her band, Sugarland: "Want To" and "Baby Girl."

Just when we thought we'd seen all that Jennifer had to offer, she ushered us back into the Christmas mood with a classic that only the most skilled power belters can pull off, "O Holy Night" with a little mashup of Leonard Choen's "Hallelujah." I still have chills.

Following the reverence of O Holy Night/Hallelujah number, the band made a rockin' shift into Sugarland's biggest hit "Something More" and the crowd went wild and sang along, myself included. This was the big finale that sparked a prolonged standing ovation, which was well deserved indeed.

The Town Hall show was the penultimate engagement of a mini-tour that marked Jennifer's first time on the road since before the pandemic. The winter holidays celebrate light and warmth in the midst of darkness and cold, and both Jennifer and the masked audience clearly felt the special poignance of this theme amid the surge of the new variant.

"We are weary," Jennifer acknowledged as she reflected on the past two years and the uncertain time ahead. "We are weary, but we are resilient." And then, capturing the spirit of the season as much as any note she sang, she added, "And we are hopeful."

Visit the Town Hall website HERE to find great concerts and shows.

HERE is the Jennifer Nettles website.

Jennifer Leigh Houston is a singer-songwriter who specializes (these days) in country and rockabilly music, though she got her start singing show tunes in musicals like CHICAGO, ANYTHING GOES, and SMOKY JOE'S CAFE. Her work as a singer-songwriter was put to good use when she became a political song parodist creating online content for NOW THIS during the previous White House administration. When she is not focused on her music, Jennifer is a baker with a popular internet program titled JEN'S SHUT YOUR CAKE HOLE, where she makes cake art in front of the camera in order to assist and inspire other cake bakers. Jennifer is an actress who appears in the Allan Piper film E VIL SUBLET, a comedy horror flick that will premiere in 2020 that stars legendary television actress Sally Struthers. Jennifer wrote and performed "Let It Begin" for the Allan Piper marriage equality documentary MARRIED AND COUNTING and is the proud cat Mama to Buddy and the late Miu, whom everyone loved and misses dearly. Jennifer Houston has a YouTube channel HERE and can be found on Instagram: jensshutyercakehole and TikTok: jenhouston2 and the Facebook page for Jen's Shut Your Cake Hole is HERE.

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