Barb Jungr
Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Fri 9 June

In talking with Barb Jungr, you can't help but be impressed by her enthusiasm and willingness to be helpful. She laughs off my lack of knowledge and offers a willingness to help out with telling the story for Adelaide audiences.

She's coming to Adelaide for exclusive appearances at the Cabaret Festival, an idea which she lauds as one of the great initiatives in show business, and one which allows her to really show various aspects of her talent.

In the first place she's here to present 'Every Grain Of Sand', her interpretation of the songs of Bob Dylan. She's also signed on to present a masterclass series whilst here, exploring how to interpret song lyrics and how to turn a song into a whole new thing through the style and nuance employed.

"Singing is a serious artform that one ought to approach seriously," she lectures me, all humour put to one side - at least for the moment.

I ask further: clearly, what draws her to the music she performs are its lyrics and its message. Consider, obviously, that she's chosen the songs of Bob Dylan to interpret. Of course she's not alone in that, but the subject of her scrutiny tells you something of her reverence. Text is the all important thing when it comes to songs such as these.

"What we're talking about is the importance thereof. I can - and do - work with a great team of people who help me when it comes to the arrangements, the feeling, the ideas behind my versions of these songs, but without them..." I can picture her in London in her rain swept home, shrugging helplessly down the phone line.

Jungr is coming to Adelaide to perform two strikingly different shows. The first, as noted, is a sort of homage to the songs of Bob Dylan. The second, it seems, is an entirely different sort of affair. 'Waterloo Sunset' is her tribute to the mod songs of London in the swinging 'sixties, ranging from the titular hit for The Kinks to the songs of Richard Thompson.

Are there differences between the two songwriters who rate so highly in her own canon? It seems to me there is; Dylan is the man whose lyrics are coded for delivery, whose metaphors are jumbled and tumbled together, and whose ideas need careful teasing out. In contrast, I argue, Ray Davies lyrics are simple and direct, and to the point. Befuddled, I am unable to supply any examples to reinforce my point, and it's Jungr who coolly tears my argument apart with a couple of well chosen quotes.

"Isn't he just the most marvelous songwriter?" she breathes of Kinks frontman Ray Davies. "So clever and artful, and I think so often overlooked." We digress for a couple of minutes to consider whether he's been made a knight of the realm yet. We can agree on Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Cliff Richard and Sir Elton John, but can't make up our minds on whether Davies is Sir Ray or not.

I strike a chord when I praise the simple word association which gave an entire city an icon for its time. The time: the 1960s, and it's encapsulated in a very simple two word phrase. Waterloo Sunset. As easy an idea and as striking a word picture as any I've ever come across, and I include with that what I consider the most famous of them all: "grassy knoll".

Jungr and I are agreed you cannot hear this simple phrase without knowing that the subject is death of JFK and the location Dallas, Texas. So it is with the poetic vision of Ray Davies.

'It's such an honour to be able to perform such brilliant songs," she says humbly.

Alex Wheaton

Barb Jungr performs as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, from Fri 9 June, proudly supported by dB Magazine