Gary Williams podcast now online

Gary William's podcast is now online -

http://garywilliams.co.uk/2014/07/barb-jungr-on-why-a-little-danger-on-stage-is-a-good-thing/#more-1930

I'm really pleased with this interview.

Enjoy.


And here's a fabulous video piece in the NY Times with Elaine Stritch, who I was happy to know and who was lovely to me when I was in New York and who told me a ton of fab stories and was a total star.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/theater/1194834046682/elaine-stritch.html?smid=fb-share

Double enjoy!

World Cups, posters and Barb's Alley…….

In the interval gearing up for the win

At the White Swan in Pimlico during the interval with Susi and her Sis, Ben and Johannes. Nothing like a win to make an evening feel like a sunny morning! 

And here's my own alley!

On the way to a tapas restaurant in Bloomsbury Ryan, Iain and I stumbled upon my own alley! I would move there except to be frank it has nothing in it - yet………

And the autumn Hard Rain dates are out -

poster and photo Steve Ullathorne

And the autumn This Wheels On Fire dates are out, too……

Photo and artwork Steve Ullathorne

And its almost time to head towards Connecticut……but more of that next week.

Reviews Corby life and more

July began with a very good - as in thought through and not just sweet - review on an American website, so that was a nice surprise.

http://www.examiner.com/review/barb-jungr-redefines-songs-of-bob-dylan-leonard-cohen-for-new-generation?cid=rss

And that came after a weekend in Corby working with a great bunch of musicians and singers and some members of the Royal Philharmonic and the orchestrator Antony Weeden. I stayed as usual at Ros Stoddart's and this time when I met the newly shorn alpacas I didn't run away and they came up close and did Bambi eyes. I can see how loveable they are now I'm not running through a field of alpaca poo as they chase me.

There were some lovely shows in June. But looming is my sellout Sunday Crazy Coqs show with my special guest, this month, Julian Clary. Its been previewed hilariously and somewhat inaccurately in places, here -

http://www.thisiscabaret.com/clary-met-barbr/

why I am called Barbr there I don't really know, but I could grow to like it.

On Monday I'm channeling my inner Nina and returning to my Linn Records CD repertoire for Hymn to Nina with some nice additions worked on with the lovely Simon Wallace. You can still book for that, here -

http://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/jazzList.aspx

June was momentous in part because I visited my mum and did some gardening. As thats about on a par with saying "I did some cooking" you can see its inherent value. I got a great pic of my mum, as we were resting in a friendly hostelry after visiting the Garden Centre in Marple, and suddenly discovered that either side of her head were adverts one including Rochdale - where I was born, and one Prague. Where my people in part came from. So that was a synchronous and Jungian marvel.

Mum between Rochdale and Prague.

Also looming is the O'Neill Theater Center Cabaret Conference - tickets are on sale for my show there now, here
http://www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/cabaret/2014-conference/

I had the nicest night out with John McDaniel and his family on monday after quaffing champagne with them and the glorious Robert Chevara. Connecticut this year is going to be glorious, I feel it in my waters.

And I'll pop into and sing a couple of numbers at a festival in Bard On Hudson. Both of which are beginning to call me loudly. And before that a night with some great people and acts for the lovely Ben Walters at Chelsea Theatre.

http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/THEATRE-PREVIEW-Come-With-Me-If-You-Want-To-Live/8384243?utm_content=buffer385e8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

So July is setting off on fire before the month even begins.

And my tickets are on sale for Hard Rain in late October in New York City!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1441130636154930/

And is if that wasn't enough news for anyone. The Corby secret is Out Of The Bag.

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/top-stories/royal-philharmonic-orchestra-to-play-at-corby-town-s-steel-park-ground-1-6149897

Corby Football Ground

So I hope to see you all over July and August at one of these fabulous things. Meanwhile Wimbledon and The World Cup progress and life zooms into tanning season.

Aloha. Namaste. 

And if you are an astrology person Tom Lescher can't be beaten. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/tomlescher

Barb x

And all the news and autumn dates are on the Barb website - here

http://www.barbjungr.com

2 new videos and Diva with a brace hits the streets.

Well, what a shock last week when I went to the new Orthodontist - my old one who cost the absolute earth has retired - nice man - but wow the prices - and the new one - Sam, said "you will want to hit me but I have to tell you the truth". Sock it to me, I said, or words to that effect, and he said "you are going to have to have a brace". By this he meant a metal brace. He showed it to me demonstrated on the cute little plaster mouth he has lying around the place. It didn't look that bad. So I said, "how much?" and he told me and I said, "do it!" He was taken aback by my decision making but having gone through years - and I do mean years, of costly Invisalign nonsense to have my teeth go marching about again has just been depressing quite frankly. I could've bought a boat for what that treatment - utterly useless as it now transpires - cost. So I went back 2 days later and had the brace put in. If I had forgotten what my gum operation felt like several years ago  - which I haven't - I would have been less well prepared for the horror that is The Brace. Weirdly I discovered that singing is OK with it on, since I had to do that for the church roof at St Mary's in Chard, which my lovely friend from Amici dance days, Gill, supports. The church, not the roof. That'd be crazy. She'd fall over. So I found out that eating is near impossible - look out Naomi Campbell soon I'll be modelling. And speaking is fairly hideous, though Ernest says that doesn't seem to have stopped me. But singing? Fine. Paracetemol helps all. Lucky I can afford that after all this treatment. Here's The Brace (which comes everywhere with me)  on its first public outing.

The Brace on The Diva

Imagine what those little gnashers will be like after this hideous treatment? The good news was that having woke up the next day with a mouth full of metal like a baddie in  Bond film, I found a lovely review of the album in the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-finkle/easy-listener-five-you-go_b_5455848.html

Eating, as I said, is a tricky business, but I bravely tried today at lunch with Ernest, who got some lovely new sunglasses and was persuaded to let the world see them.

Ernest with new sunglasses and snazzy shirt.

Got home to find that Janet had made some lovely films of two songs from the Dean Street gigs a couple of weeks ago. They are accompanied by cutlery and chair moving which sometimes actually stops you thinking, but the piano is gorgeous thanks to Simon Wallace and the double bass likewise thanks to Dudley Phillips. You can check them out here on this playlist -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llhbi1w5VKU&list=PL4T-QYCW8ywnDTD-vd26xzsFmhcYlYqWr&index=4

Meanwhile I have my eye on everything, as this - taken by Erika at Sugo in Notting Hill Gate, suggests.

And here are some birds with moustaches.

Happy early summer and Mercury retrograde. Let the roses bloom and peonies tinkle. Namaste.

Birthday Corby Brighton Chelsea Flower show

Well, May has become life changing. Great reviews, a great party, great shows and flowers. Got a lot of photos for you, and a bunch of news. Got a wonderful review or too about the place, which is grand as the album is released in the US this coming week. Here's one from Seattle. Where, hint hint, I would love to play.

http://blogcritics.org/music-review-barb-jungr-hard-rain-the-songs-of-bob-dylan-and-leonard-cohen/

So - where to start? OK. The big birthday at the 606 club was just brilliant. Habie Schwarz took some superb photos of friends and performers there, and I'm including a couple, here. The 606 was the best host venue in the known cosmos and thanks to the kindness and generosity of my great friend Ernest Hecht we had a superb party. We had curry and prosecco, performances from Mel Harrold, Sarah Moule, Bjarne Norum, John Korn, Claire Martin and Simon Wallace, and Eve Ferret and Ben Bowling spoke, Philip Herbert wrote a poem specially and Rania Hafez read Sufi wisdom. And Mari Wilson, Claire Martin and I had a sing. Ronnie and the Rex blew up a storm and we danced. It was a party and a half and I thank everyone who helped make it so. And there was cake from Megan's in the New Kings Road that went all around London as well.  Here's Ernest having party fun -

Ernest laughing

Steve Ruby Barb and Claire Martin

The Old Girl Talk get together Mari, Claire and Barb

Sally Blades, Barb and Ernest

Phil Herbert getting a big kiss

James Offer brings the cake and candles

Sophie Coats and Amanda Denton Stuart Ongley and Dave Mauchline in the foreground

werewolves of London dancing to Ronnie and the Rex

Then there was a great show last friday night at my lovely second home theatre, The Core in Corby with a fantastic audience of Dylan, Cohen and Barb friends in the audience, before we met with the International Women's Forum weekend. On the saturday we were at BAFTA in the David Lean room (great black and white stills from some of Britain's most celebrated films) and Simon and I got a standing ovation from a fantastic audience of some of Britain's most mover-y and shaker-y women after rocking out Red Red Wine and Forever Young. On the Sunday there was a breakfast debate at King's Place, the sun beat down and we hammered at the way forward for women in the world. We got there in the end. Now we just have to make it so! Inspiring speeches and conversations, on, as Shelley Von Strunckel pointed out, hallowed ground, with Boadicea buried nearby - apparently under a platform at Kings Cross is one theory.

Monday found us in beautiful rural Northamptonshire. I went looking for the grass snake (which resolutely refused to show itself) in Ros's pond, while mum and Ros went to bond with the alpacas in the field beyond. I discovered I have alpaca fear, as they came running towards me and I upped and ran away! I may still be traumatised by the alsatian that ran at me when I was a little girl. But I shall go face my fears and the alpacas again next time I'm at Ros's and make peace with their leader. They kind of look like punk sheep so really we ought to get on fine. Here they are, mum and Ros and the alpacas, all having a super time together.

alpaca fun, Ros and Mum in Brigstock

more alpaca fun for Ros and Mum

alpaca a go go the guys love mum and Ros

After the alpacas we had tea sitting in the late afternoon sunshine in the garden before heading off to a superb rehearsal with Head of Snakes and The Deep Roots Tall Trees choir at The Ark school in Rockingham Road in preparation for the big concert in August. We made for home under a lovely May night sky but no owls and the next day we were up early and off to Brighton, where we hit the pier with a vengeance before I headed off to my shows at Komedia, with Simon playing up a storm and the best audiences in the Brighton festival.

Mum on the pier

Simon - a musician prepares

Mum finally got all of me in on the iPhone

me preparing in dressing room

we love Brighton

Back to London after a couple of great seaside days and then straight to heaven, or Chelsea Flower Show as its also know. I've never been and now I am going to go every year. It brought my latent botanist out, I conversed about carnivorous plants and peonies, cacti and fuchsias with anybody from anywhere who'd care to. What's wonderful is that all the gardeners are more than happy to engage anyone interested, because of the true love they feel for the work they do and the plants they nurture. I embraced the scent of a thousand blossoms. Glorious to be with Aki my sister in law and mum on such a sunny afternoon (after the hail and thunder) and just look at plants (with about ten million other people). We all crawled around in a state of bliss, bathed in photosynthesising artistry. Then we sped off like jet setters to Julian's birthday party, pink champagne and more people. And May isn't even over yet! Just a taster here of Chelsea's marvels and Aki, my mum and I, enjoying them. I'll leave you with the flowers and say - Happy Spring to you all on this gorgeous May Bank Holiday.

Bluebells in Richmond Park and short stories on Radio 4

May burst into sharp focus and the lovely Lena arrived from Australia. She compiles the bi-monthly newsletter and does a superb job, and as, when she visited me,  the day was glorious - Bank Holiday weekend - imagine, good weather on a May Bank Holiday weekend! As it was gorgeous, we headed to Kew Gardens along with half of London, to see the bluebells and walk the treetop walk. Parking proved something of a challenge, and involved sitting in the car eyes peeled like a metal bird of prey ready to swoop into a space when someone else vacated. Once parked though, heaven awaited. The Treetop Walk is quite something. I have suffered form vertigo for some time (couldn't walk across the Carrick Rope Bridge in Northern Ireland) and conquered it by going climbing with John Paul Zaccarini at the Ladbroke Grove Indoor Climbing Wall. If you want to conquer vertigo go to a climbing wall with a circus professor who can scale a rope in 3 seconds. Thats my advice. I managed quite well on that wall and surprised myself. So I had a flying lesson. Near Shoreham there's a small flying centre and you can take a lesson and you fly over the sea in what I can only describe as something thats one step up from a paper plane. The wind bats you about like billyo and you essentially live to face another day, very slightly braver and less scared of turbulence. Recommended. I shall try that rope bridge again when I get the chance - which wasn't when we played Newtownabbey last week, to a glorious audience who couldn't have been nicer. After the gig we met up with John and Dorothy Morrison at Bill and Ed's after show and generously thrown party. Back to Kew. The Treetop Walk takes you in a circle through a bunch of treetops. Thats the general concept. And as the horse chestnuts are in blossom right now, and all the trees are bursting with new life in a million shades of green, it was stunning. Felt like a bird. Bird on a mesh walkway, at any rate. Then to the bluebell woods. Heaven is probably like Kew bluebell woods in spring. Walking through a scent laden sea of tremulous blue flowers, I thought, I could stay here forever.

First flash of the bluebells

The path leads through the blue.

The blue goes on and on…….

Midsummer night's dream could happen here so easily

There's still time to catch the short story Sunset to Break Your Heart, which is set, not as the BBC announced, on Shetland, but on the Isle of Skye, and Barra, South and North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. It was written as part of the Songwriters Write Short Story series for BBC Radio 4, and was a joy and a challenge. Mine is the Sunset to Break Your Heart story in full and words rather than song - though a it of the song tops and tails the piece. It was read by Suranne Jones, and was my first short story to be aired. You can hear it here till Sunday the 11th.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042l2xw

And Sunday and Monday we sing the Dylan and Cohen songs with Dudley Phillips on bass, Simon Wallace of course, on piano, at Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho. Then to Corby on the 16th at The Core at Corby Cube, and beyond that The Brighton Festival, Komedia, on the 20th and 21st of May. All the dates and booking details are here  under Live Dates.

http://www.barbjungr.com

So, see you there, between bluebells.

Till then……..

Fleece Jazz, Crazy Coqs, Easter, The Verb and April's end

The month began with a gig at Fleece Jazz which was recorded for BBC Radio Suffolk, so Hard Rain was rendered live with Dudley Phillips on bass and Simon on the upright joanna there in Stoke by Nayland Golf and Spa hotel which is where the gig is held. We were in a sort of ballroom with a view across a paved patio over the links. Is it only me thats amused by people driving around an area that even my mum with a sore foot could walk around? I thought the entire purpose of golf was the walking and so on. Clearly I know nothing about golf. And everything I do know I know from Larry David, so obviously, its not much at all. The gig was magic, however, and the drive there its usual vile friday afternoon Dartford Crossing Tunnel nightmare. Nightmare at Dartford Tunnel. Its right there. Driving back under a waxing moon was beautiful, with the scent of blossom in the night air. No owls though. Always a disappointment.

Then there was a slight sojourn in Stockport which involved driving across The Forest of Bowland, which is a high moor to the right of the M6 as you drive north with the Lake District to your left. Few people bother with this bit of the country and it really came to some sort of notice through the first series of The Trip, as Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden talked and ate their way across it, on camera. Its a beautiful and curiously remote spot and we managed to cross the moor on the single track road meeting maybe 6 other cars in the entire journey. From the top you can see the North Yorkshire Dales and the mountains of the Lake District and out over to Morecambe Bay and Lancashire. Devastatingly beautiful if, like me, your thing is barren treeless places with a lot of wind and space and not much else.

from the top of the Forest of Bowland looking north to Yorkshire

Mum took this, I'm in my element on the moors. 

On arriving back in London I went to Crazy Coqs to see Ann Hampton Calloway with my mate Claire Martin. Ann was backstage and we popped in to do "darling have a fab show" and she said "shall I get you two up for the improvised song?" and we said "uh oh" and went out to watch the show.

Ann Hampton Calloway and I being lovies.

Ann was brilliant, she played A Case of You and had both of us blubbing within minutes. Seconds, actually. So with tear streaked faces we took to the stage when she called us up and together we improvised a song made up from stuff our lovely audience chucked at us. Ann's a dab hand at this, Claire acquitted herself well, and someone kindly filmed the entire thing from the perspective of my backside. Its here….

We were Divas and I sand possibly the highest notes I've managed for many a moon. I may be turning into an opera diva………I'd be perfectly happy to do the Opera House Covent Garden - there's a hint out there - right there……

Then it was Easter and I walked out all over Kingston and Richmond Park with Sue Hart and Jane Pettingell, in a blustery sunshiny day. Isabella Plantation was packed with blossoming azaleas and lilac and wisteria and camellias - extraordinarily beautiful, it was like being in Japan - those glorious Japanese gardens - peaceful and contemplative.

flowers a go go at Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park

The Still Pond at Isabella Plantation

Blossom reflected in the Still Pond at Isabella Plantation

And from there to the cinema with Ernest to see We Are The Best and Locke. Both were worth the afternoon and the tenner in the Gate at Notting Hill, on a cold, wet Easter Sunday.

And then to Manchester to record The Verb with Ian McMillan at the helm and John Carey, Maria Hyland and Ross Sutherland as the other guests. Ross cracked us up with his poem, and I sang Who By Fire and tiny bots of Blowing in the Wind and Sara. Its on inlayer for a week, maybe more, here -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04154dy

So we come to the end of April, and the first third of the year is gone, and I don't know where or how. The Making of Hard Rain video is picking up hits and I'm hoping Matt Lynch and I can make another this coming month - watch this space……meanwhile, in case you haven't seen it yet -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tssuy8Y5YrE

Till we speak again, gather ye blossoms where ye may……happy spring!