Cathy Segal-Garcia: “Social Anthems Volume 2” (2024) CD Review

In 2021, jazz vocalist Cathy Segal-Garcia released Social Anthems Volume 1, which contained covers of songs that address social issues. The Volume 1 of the title promised a second volume, but it took a few years for her to fulfill that promise. In the meantime, she released an excellent live 2-disc album with Phillip Strange, Live In Japan. But now we have Social Anthems Volume 2, which, like the first volume, contains mostly covers of well-known songs. Joining her on this disc are Carey Frank on piano and organ, Nick Mancini on vibraphone, Will Brahm on guitar, Alex Boneham on bass, David Pilch on bass, John Leftwich on bass, Steve Hass on drums, Jay Bellerose on drums, and Chris Wabich on drums, along with a couple of special guests.

On the first album, there were some obvious choices, such as “For What It’s Worth” and “Get Together,” but there were also some surprising choices. On the second volume, she opens with another surprising choice, Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” from his 1986 album So. Not a song you might think of as a social anthem, but her rendition has me focusing on certain lines, in part because of her delivery, lines like these: “Love, I don’t like to see so much pain/So much wasted, and this moment keeps slipping away/I get so tired of working so hard for our survival.” I’m not sure I had paid such close attention to the lyrics back in my teens when I first heard it. I think I had just heard it as a song about romantic love.  She sings, “I reach out from the inside/The inside,” rather than stretching out the word “inside,” as Peter Gabriel did. By the way, on the first volume, she covered Peter Gabriel’s “Down To Earth.” That’s followed by a song whose inclusion on this release immediately strikes us as apt, Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),” here listed as “Inner City Blues/Make Me Wanna Holler.” Cathy Segal-Garcia delivers a very cool rendition. I love the way it begins with the bass and percussion. This song comes from Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album What’s Going On. Cathy Segal-Garcia dipped into that fantastic album on the first volume as well, delivering a good rendition of “Save The Children.” The band really delivers here, and this track features delicious leads on vibes, piano and guitar. Cathy Segal-Garcia’s vocal delivery has just the right tone, serious and passionate. “Money, we make it/Before we see it, you take it.”

Mon David joins Cathy Segal-Garcia on vocals on “Living For The City,” a song written by Stevie Wonder and included on his wonderful Innervisions album. I like that work on organ at the beginning, giving this version a somewhat mellower feel than the original, and we get just a bit of vocal riffing by Cathy. And then she and Mon David trade lines on the verses. This song tells a compelling story dealing with discrimination and poverty, and it features some excellent guitar work. Cathy offers some scat, which works as a bridge between brief guitar and vibraphone leads. And then the guitar and vibes work in conjunction, which is fantastic. Interestingly, this rendition doesn’t include the complete story, leaving out that section about the bus and the arrest. Cathy Segal-Garcia is covering the single version, rather than the album version. That’s followed by “Russians/My Russia.”  This is an interesting track, combining Sting’s “Russians” with an original composition by Cathy Segal-Garcia titled “My Russia.” The two songs are combined seamlessly. “Russians” comes from Sting’s first album, and uses a theme from Prokofiev. That album was released in the mid-1980s, and the song’s lyrics mention Krushchev and Reagan: “There’s no such thing as a winnable war/It’s a lie we don't believe anymore/Mister Reagan says, ‘We will protect you’/I don’t subscribe to this point of view.” Cathy Segal-Garcia updates the song, mentioning Putin rather than Krushchev, and changing Reagan to Biden, an interesting choice. After all, there is another war going on right now started by the Russians. This track features some strong stuff on organ, particularly toward the end.

The first lines of “Book Of Love” make me laugh, “The book of love is long and boring/No one can lift the damned thing.” This song was written by Stephin Merrit, and originally recorded by his band The Magnetic Fields. Peter Gabriel also covered this one. Paul Jost joins Cathy on vocals on this track, and they deliver a really good rendition. This track includes some great drumming, plus nice work on vibraphone. Social Anthems Volume 1 contained one original number by Cathy Segal-Garcia, and this volume contains two, sort of, or one and a half, if “My Russia” is counted as half the track. Anyway, the full original song is “The Beginning Of You.” It opens with some good work on bass, and very quickly develops a seriously cool vibe. “I don’t know how you broke the door/But I’m not the same anymore,” Cathy sings on this one, and we can hear the change. These lines also stand out for me: “And then you called me your little baby/Made my heart go crazy/Everything got hazy/Lord, I didn’t know me.” Years ago, my girlfriend told me how she’d read that being called “baby” affects the brain in a positive way, offering some relief, and I thought about that upon hearing those lines. I love the percussion on this track. This is one of the album’s best tracks.

I mentioned that on the first volume Cathy Segal-Garcia covered Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” a song written by Stephen Stills. Well, on this album she covers another Stephen Stills song, this one originally performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” This one, coming from the first CSN album, is a more surprising choice than “For What It’s Worth.” “Sometimes it hurts so badly I must cry out loud/I am lonely.” This version features some excellent guitar work in the first section. As it moves into the next section, the organ leads that transition. This section is beautiful, the way she approaches it, even as she sings, “Please be gone, oh, I’m tired of you.” She changes “Be my lady” to “I’m your lady,” which doesn’t just change the gender, but seemingly the outcome. The disc concludes with a remix version of “Inner City Blues,” this version giving it a more modern pop vibe. It doesn’t feel like just a remix, but a different vocal approach. It’s interesting, but I prefer the other version.

CD Track List

1. In Your Eyes
2. Inner City Blues/Make Me Wanna Holler
3. Living For The City
4. Russians/My Russia
5. Book Of Love
6. The Beginning Of You
7. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
8. Inner City Blues (Kapitan Remix)

Social Anthems Volume 2 was released on August 30, 2024 on Dash Hoffman Records.