THE UNTHINKABLE NANCY BROWN RETURNS

Some people really don’t get Nancy Brown. People we respect too; people who’s taste and judgment we value, who we admire and frankly would like to be more like. And we understand. Between the goofball glasses (not pictured), penchant for the Arrested Development shades of the spectrum (from when George Michael was a star, not the show with George Michael) and the whole leave this city for Brooklyn thing, we can see how folks might stop at three strikes and walk away. But we’ve always been fans, so please indulge us a few moments as we make the case for you to spend your evening listening to the sounds of one of our most favorite non-bearded prodigal sons.

The last time we checked in with Nancy Brown, she was doing her final 713 standup show opening for Bright Back the Guns, and the clock before her departure was ticking down. Now that she’s jumped her seventh-generation Texan ship for more Yankee (or Mets – she strikes us as a Mets fan) pastures, she seems to have found a strong fondness for the land beyond the Mason Dixon, and has taken to singing Southern Gothic ballads under the name The Dead of Night. Straight from the chain-gang, and without accompaniment, Brown's new onstage repertoire is anything but funny. Frankly, it kinda creeps us out and makes us hope she’s doing ok in the Rorschach department.

But, despite this new side we weren’t really expecting, there’s something definitely beautiful about her music, like the way an amaryllis gracefully closes itself and falls to the dirt after just a week of bloom. It calls to us, and we can’t quite shake it, though it might give us nightmares later.

It’s good, then, that she’s playing tonight with fellow creeker of the timber Sabra Laval (also on the Notsuoh bill is Cory Derden). Recommended. (And come home for good soon, Texas misses you.)

Stream: The Dead of Night - Various Tracks