Ana Egge

Lazy Days (Grace)

For some artists, releasing an entire disc of covers signals a holding pattern. Ana Egge’s Lazy Days is a collection of others’ tunes, but she’s stretching herself in ways that perhaps she couldn’t on her own. It’s as varied a set of choices as these things get, the local singer-songwriter with the sublime voice inhabiting and adapting songs from Gene Autry, Stephen Stills, the Kinks, Arcade Fire, Sandy Denny, and others into a sunny whole. Recorded in New York, Egge calls on such hotshots as drummer Anton Fier, guitarist Tony Scherr, and cellist Jane Scarpantoni to paint musical mattes of effortless times. Her version of Ron Sexsmith’s “Wastin’ Time” just might be more luxurious than the original, and the set closer, Harry Nilsson’s “Wastin’ My Time,” finds Egge as chanteuse, a part that she rarely plays but one she should explore more often. ***

This article appears in November 16 • 2007.

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