Barb Jungr Ends Stint at the Met Room 5/23

The iconoclastic British singer Barb Jungr, who is best known for her amazing deconstructions of songs by American rockers, is releasing "The Men I Love," her new album which she subtitles "The New American Songbook." Her celebration of the U.S. release of this new title from NAIM Label (distributed in the U.S. by Allegro) on May 11 will come to a close at the Metropolitan Room on May 23.

Her new live show, "River," is her eighth engagement at The Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, since she broke ground there in 2007. A collection of iconic songs from the late 20th century that rarely are heard in jazz and cabaret rooms, "River" opens on Tuesday May 18 at 7pm, playing six shows through Sunday May 23 at 7pm. The show includes a number of standouts from last year's rapturously reviewed "The Men I Love," which The New York Times said "sparked a small revolution" when it opened at the Café Carlyle in March, before being reprised at in a sell-out run The Metropolitan Room in September.

Stephen Holden has called Jungr's ability to sensitively re-imagine American blues, rock and jazz standards "a personal deconstruction that strips the material naked so that you see through any disguises." But is it true, as Jungr implies with her eye-opening interpretations (that reveal latent emotional content when she dislodges the songs from their original contexts), that many American songwriters from the rock era and beyond are not a breed apart from their predecessors like Gershwin, Kern, Mercer and Berlin? Is it right to have already closed the book (or the door) on the Great American Songbook? Jungr believes it is still being written and that Dylan, Springsteen and Cohen can comfortably sit beside Porter and the rest.

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy

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