Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} If you’ve heard of Alice Smith, you’ve asked yourself “What happened to her?” at least once a year since 2007. If you haven’t heard of Alice Smith, the answer to that very question is the reason why.
Critics fawned over Smith’s debut For Lovers, Dreamers & Me when it came out in ’07, invoking comparisons to everyone from Patti LaBelle (for the powerhouse vocals) to Fiona Apple (for songwriting that's hard-to-pin-down, that’s funk, rock, punky and jazzy all at once).
She even garnered a Grammy nomination for that album’s song “Dream,” but once the dust settled at Epic Records -- where all kinds of bigwig turnover infamously went down as the label struggled to redefine itself in the digital landscape -- the material Smith had been developing for her sophomore effort kind of got lost in the shuffle.
Meanwhile, she kept playing sold-out shows, where fans would keep asking where the new music was. (Google “alice smith” and “new album” and you’ll come across a faux-campaign called Free Alice Smith’s New Album.)
And though Smith herself has described the whole process as “painful,” she kept on plugging away at life. She’s had a baby girl, moved her family to the sunnier shores of Los Angeles, and lent her four-octave range to projects like a Brazilian tune on the
Heart's “Alone” that rarely fails to seal the deal for any nonbelievers in the audience.)
Blue Note Jazz Festival) goosebump-inducing funk cover of431 W 16th St.; 212-414-5994.