event Nellie McKay

On the surface, Nellie McKay comes off as a sweet-cheeked Doris Day fan who plays piano and sings with the nuanced voice of an aged jazz great. Listen for more than a few seconds, however, and you’ll find she’s cooing through lyrics about stalkers and stabbings and misbegotten foreign policy. She also raps. And sometimes she leads audiences through Mandarin-language sing-alongs. McKay's impressive breadth as a performer comes through clear as crystal on recent albums like 2006’s Pretty Little Head and 2007’s Obligatory Villagers, but live is still the best way to drink her in. Her latest disc embraces her most obvious influence: Normal As Blueberry Pie features a baker's dozen covers of tunes originally made famous by Doris Day.

On the surface, Nellie McKay comes off as a sweet-cheeked Doris Day fan who plays piano and sings with the nuanced voice of an aged jazz great. Listen for more than a few seconds, however, and you’ll find she’s cooing through lyrics about stalkers and stabbings and misbegotten foreign policy. She also raps. And sometimes she leads audiences through Mandarin-language sing-alongs. McKay's impressive breadth as a performer comes through clear as crystal on recent albums like 2006’s Pretty Little Head and 2007’s Obligatory Villagers, but live is still the best way to drink her in. Her latest disc embraces her most obvious influence: Normal As Blueberry Pie features a baker's dozen covers of tunes originally made famous by Doris Day.