It’s 3 a.m., a candle is flickering on the table in the corner and last call has come and gone. Suddenly a woman’s voice, this rich, deep, sad- but-defiant voice comes out of nowhere: “Take your love / I’m not for loving / Take your needs / I’m not for needing / Take your tears / I’m not for crying / I belong to the wind.” Rich as the darkest Godiva chocolate, the voice gets into your bones until you can barely sleep at night and can’t get through the day without it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dayna Kurtz’s Beautiful Yesterday, an album not so much nostalgic for times gone by, as it is furious at time’s very passing.
And time is clearly on Kurtz’s mind—from the first song, in which she calls it a bastard, to the title cut, which closes the CD. The rest of the disc, both covers and original material, keeps the theme going, although not to the point that Beautiful Yesterday risks turning into a dreaded concept album. Still, if late October—when what leaves are left on the trees have faded and winter is no longer a far-off notion—begged a soundtrack, this would be it. Kurtz sounds at times like her musical DNA contains traces of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, not to mention the world’s great cabaret singers. Once in a while, her reach exceeds her grasp. But isn’t that an artist’s job?