Katherine Whalen's Parlour Folk Troupe

Evening Muse

March 13, 2010

The Deal: Squirrel Nut Zippers' leading lady shows off her solo stuff and some covers during two-set performance for small crowd.

The Good: With her sultry, soothing vocals intact, singer Katherine Whalen did her best to entertain a small crowd at the Evening Muse on Saturday night. If you were there to hear Zippers tunes, you would have left disappointed, but still could have heard plenty of great music.

Much like her ex-husband and Zippers cohort Jimbo Mathus did for his band Knockdown South, Whalen has done her best to gather up incredibly talented musicians around her. Drums, pedal steel, keyboards and a cello were used to add more depth behind her voice.

Whalen her self made a couple of instrument changes, starting out the night on banjo before switching to a tenor guitar. Songs performed during the two 8-song sets included "Chief Thunder," "Same Turning In Place" and the newly written "When I Dream." She performed a number of covers and songs she wrote with other artists including Thad Cockrell's "Lonely Hearts Were Meant For Breaking," Stephen Merritt's "You You You You You," Nick Lowe's "Lately I Let Things Slide" and the Carter Family's "Nobody's Darling."

The Bad: Another case of — too bad more people weren't there to see it.

The Verdict: A talented singer who is standing up well on her own without the Zippers. Hopefully, new music will be released soon.