From The Deli, 11/16
And they’re off! Last night at Bar Matchless, 25 contestants in the 5th Annual Williamsburg Live Songwriter Competition played their hearts out to a completely full house. Claustrophobia aside, the night was filled with talent, enthusiasm, good will, and empty bottles of Magic Hat....Robin Aigner performed one of the evening’s best songs, about traveling with a companion and enjoying the simple pleasures of the wandering road: “We took a wrong turn, then we took another wrong turn… Going much slower than the limit allows, pointing and shouting looking at cows.â€
From Lucid Culture,
Concert Review: Royal Pine at Spikehill, Brooklyn NY 11/2/08
Royal Pine AKA Robin Aigner was next on the bill. Highly sought after as a singer on the oldtimey circuit, Aigner also writes wonderfully smart, often quirky, melodically rich, historically-imbued songs, these days equal parts ragtime, vintage country and Roma melody. To keep the show moving along, she began on guitar, then switched to ukulele and ended with a few songs on banjo. Lots of new material in the set: one song with a clever and complex rhyme scheme about an eccentric expat woman, another about FDR’s secretary (who knew where Roosevelt’s car was parked), another about an imagined romance between Irving Berlin and the first immigrant woman to go through Ellis Island and a song in Romanes that she accelerated at the end to a frenetic dance. And there was That Voice – confident, a little brassy, playful and fun. Aigner’s songs are thoughtful and occasionally pensive but always imbued with a sense of humor, sometimes ironic, sometimes puckish. Whatever the case, Aigner doesn’t kvetch – she’s having too much fun, and the vibe extends to the audience. And she doesn’t overdo it: only on the last number did she get sultry, and the way she did it felt effortless and perfectly natural. The dark, chromatic Roma chord changes are also a nice addition to her arsenal of subtle pinches and pokes. It was enough to keep us from straying a few blocks south where Escarioka – high on our list of “gotta see†bands – were playing.—Alan Young
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