Kacy Crowley
Zilker Park, Sept. 24
Memo to Ahmet Ertegun: Kacy Crowley is still every bit the tougher-than-cool female singer-songwriter she was when you made her the winner of the 1997 SXSW lottery. Not sure what good that does now that the world wants pop trixies, but the local singer drew from 2003’s Moodswing and 2004’s Tramps Like Us like the Nineties never happened, which is to say adult and with feeling. Opener “Kind of Perfect” from the former was indicative of Crowley’s set as a whole. She pens a nice emotional pop song, confident, relaxed, and completely comfortable in her own skin (check the new Jon Dee Graham calendar “Naked”). Still, at times it’s like there’s not quite enough ‘there’ there. She’s got memorable lines (“It’s not genius if you stole it”), a bit of chipped shoulder in her delivery, and a solid backing band. All the pieces are there and most of the time they fall together, like on “Downtime.” She’s the woman who you still think can’t miss. Other times, the whole is about the sum of the parts and no more. She’s tough and cool, no doubt, there’s just that something else missing some of the time. Two out of three.
This article appears in September 30 • 2005.