Strange Roots

When Mary Coughlan steps out on the stage in HQ at the Irish Music Hall of Fame next Tuesday night (May 2nd) to perform the songs of Billie Holiday, she will be taking on a role that many feel she was destined to play. For there are striking parallels between the tragic life of the legendary jazz singer and Coughlan's own trials and tribulations over the last 15 years, not least of them being her very public battle with booze and pills.
"I think I was singing her songs before I even knew what they were about and long before I discovered I was an alcoholic," Couglan says. "It was a kind of a premonition on my part, I suppose. I remember when I was about 18 seeing Diana Ross in the movie version of Lady Sings The Blues and I'll never forget it. It was in Shepherds Bush in London one rainy afternoon. I came out of the cinema with tears in my eyes. Later on I sang her songs as a kind of a catharsis, to get through some of the awful times I was going through.
With Coughlan in the lead role, Lady Sings The Blues is a celebration of the life and music of Billie Holiday featuring the cream of Irish jazz musicians including Prof. Peter O'Brien, Richie Buckley, Big Jim Farrelly, Myles Drennan , Sven Buic and Jimmy Faulkner, along with some special guests.
"It's going to be a lot different than just doing a gig with a few Billie Holiday songs in it," Coughlan explains. "It's much more of a theatre production. We're doing the whole 1940's/1950's thing with costumes, sets, slides all that stuff. I won't be doing any talking at all during the show, John Kelly will be narrating the story of Billie Holiday's life. I'll probably even wear Billie's trademark a gardenia, in my hair. It's funny, I remember the Diceman used to send gardenias to me everytime I played in Dublin."
Coughlan says she has included at least one Billie Holiday song on every album she's recorded since her debut Tired And Emotional was released back in 1985. Her most recent album Long Honeymoon recorded last summer and due for release shortly has several Holiday songs included.
"I'd been getting more into the jazz thing recently, which is where the idea for this show came from. After I'd done the album the record company went bust and we sat around thinking about what we should do and we came up with this idea. I think it might have been done before. I saw an ad in Ronnie Scott s in London about ten years ago for a show based on Holiday's life.
According to Coughlan, one of the problems with putting together a show like this was in deciding which of the legendary jazz singer's songs to include and which to leave out. "She recorded over 500 sides during over the course of her career," she explains. "I came up with about 100 songs straight away, which we eventually cut down to 50. Now it's down to about 28 or 29 songs, although we'll vary the set slightly over different nights."
If the show proves to be the success many of those involved in it are predicting it may well go on the road.
"Apparently a lot of people are already interested in putting it on, around Ireland anyway, so we'll see how it goes. We're working our asses off in rehearsals trying to make it as good as possible. I think it'll be a wonderful show.

Lady Sings The Blues opens at HQ on Tuesday 2nd May for a limited run (previews 25th -29th April)