Set to perform a single show at Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium, it should be worth navigating the perpetual construction around the venue for Keren Ann. The singer-songwriter-producer (she has self-produced all her albums) has just released her fifth album, Keren Ann, featuring the single "Nolita".
The 33-year-old was born in Caesarea to a Russian father and Dutch-Javanese mother. Raised in Paris, she eventually moved to New York, splitting her time between the Big Apple and the City of Lights. She produces her music in both adopted languages.
Recently, it has been rumored that following her involvement with an Israeli beau, she is spending much more time in her native country.
Her debut album La biographie de Luka Philipsen was released in 2000. Three years later she released Not Going Anywhere, which included the hit single of the same title and was featured on the television show Grey's Anatomy. Keren Ann's music also appears in the series Six Feet Under.
With a lyrical flow accentuated by her sweet, feminine vocals, Keren Ann cites Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Chet Baker and Billie Holiday as musical influences.
She also points to Dayna Kurtz (below), who will be opening for Keren Ann and then sticking around to give three more shows of her own.
A New Jersey native, Kurtz is a singer-songwriter described as straddling the space between jazz, rock, folk and poetry. Characterized by a heavy, smoky voice, she's found larger favor with European audiences than with American ones.
Keren Ann's Mann Auditorium show is Tuesday at 9 p.m. Tickets are priced between NIS 129-199; (03) 524-737. Dayna Kurtz begins her mini-tour Wednesday at Tel Aviv's Levontin 7 of the same address; tickets cost NIS 50; (03) 560-5084. Kurtz's second show, on Thursday, is in the Galilee at Hemdat Yamim; NIS 60; (04) 698-9423 or visit hemdatyamim.com. Her third and final show on the first of June is scheduled for Haifa's Martef 10, located at 23 Jerusalem St.; (04) 824-0762.
