Some people run away from their past, their parents and everything they hated about growing up. Tony Award-wining actress Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) chooses to embrace all those things. Her new album, The Villa Satori, takes its name from the building in the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco where she grew up. Yesterday she shared that album in a listening party on BroadwayWorld’s Facebook Page. The video from that listening party can be found on the same page.
Haight-Ashbury was the birthplace of the counter-culture movement in the 1960s. The songs Hall has selected for the album all embrace the idea of memory and music. The Villa Satori started its life as a cabaret show she performed.
This clip is from a performance of Jefferson Airplane’s song White Rabbit from a performance at Feinstein’s/54 Below. This song opens the album.
The rest of the tracks on the album are:
Piece Of My Heart
She’s Leaving Home
Somebody
Anarchy In The UK
Calling You
Nothing Else Matters
Violet
Release
Karma Police
The last song on The Villa Satori is Alanis Morrisette’s You Learn (written with Glen Ballard).
Hall shared the album with me and I can tell you that for those who loved her performance as “Yitzhak” will find a lot to love here. For those who also know the gentler side of her singing you will equally be pleased.
If you followed her wonderful Obsessed series of EPs then her embrace of a variety of styles and genres should be no surprise. As a fan of that series, I’m glad to finally hear her sing Radiohead’s Karma Police (which wasn’t part of her Obsessed: Radiohead EP.)
There’s a real challenge in taking familiar material and making it your own, but Lena Hall does exactly that with The Villa Satori. One reason she’s so successful with this project is she clearly has a passion for each and every song.
And a passion for her past. In an e-mail she said, “YES all the photos are of the house I grew up in, it’s called The Villa Satori, this album is about growing up in that house, it’s still there and still looks the same, and YES my parents are and were and will always be Hippies!”
How cool would it have been to grow up in a place like The Villa Satori? Find out today when Lena Hall shares her songs and stories during her listening party.
All photos by Melisa Hall/Blue Note Weddings (Courtesy of Lena Hall)
Update: This post has been updated to correct the start time which is 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT. Also the first name of photographer Melisa Hall has been corrected as she only has one “s” in her first name.
