Alexandra Billings will always leave you wanting more.
Just go to her Sunday night gigs at Gentry on Halsted and listen and watch. Just when you’re settling in to the sweet smoke of her voice on some heart-wrenching tune, Billings will snap, snap, snap into a riotous monologue that will have you in stitches. And no sooner do you surrender to the fact that you’re laughing so hard you’re crying, she grabs the mike and soars with something much, much deeper.
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At the end of the night — by the time the sky’s a velvet blue and it’s Monday and there’s actually parking on Halsted — you’ll still be sitting on your bar stool, dazzled, yearning for one more blast, one more clever line, one more whisper. With any luck, Billings will wander over . . . she’ll chat a while, blow you a kiss. . . .
You will also notice — because it’s unavoidable, it’s as unmistakable as sunrise and sunset — that Billings is, well, beautiful. Oh, sure, it’s a cliche — cabaret singer, actress, drop-dead gorgeous woman, all angular cheeks and buttery skin.
You will say to your friends: I’m telling you, she’s ravishing — and can she sing! She can really sing!
Need proof? Can’t get your sluggish pals out past 9 on a Sunday night? Give them “Being Alive,” Billings’ new CD, chock full of tunes from those Sunday nights — “Some People,” “Let the River Run,” “Come Sail Away.”
More songs, says her pal Nan Mason (with whom she often double-bills on Sundays), than she usually does per set. . . . You know this friendly bitching . . . Mason’s the first one wracked with laughter over Billings’ antics . . . Mason’s one of the pals who’ve been telling Billings to get this CD out for years now. . . .
“I wanted people to feel like they were coming to hear me sing,” Billings says about the recording. “I didn’t want it to feel overproduced.”
Or sparse either.
But she lucked out: Joanie Pallatto engineered and helped produce the CD. “She’s a singer too, so she’s a stickler,” says Billings. “Joanie has a Broadway side to her, she’s a great actress in her songs. I think that’s what drew her to me and me to her.”
Billings’ favorite? “Let the River Run.”
“It’s been 11 years and I never get tired of singing it,” she says. “It’s about freedom, courage, sacrifice. Hey, you can’t do any better than Carly Simon.”
But you can if it’s Billings doing the singing. Just listen. And if you can’t drop in on Gentry, Billings stars as Gertrude at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre as of Thursday in “Hamlet: The Musical.”
Then there will be a few gigs around town to showcase “Being Alive,” then off for quick concerts in New York and L.A.
For now, though, there’s the Southport Records’ Seventh Annual Festival, all next week. Each night will feature Southport artists at Pops For Champagne (2934 N. Sheffield Ave., 773-472-1000). On Monday, the club will host the official Alexandra Billings CD release bash — it starts at 8:30 p.m., and assume it will go all night.
Besides Billings (of course, Billings freak, Billings lapdog that you are, you don’t really care, but the rest of us do) the fest includes a kickoff event, “A Taste of Southport,” a free concert at 12:15 p.m. Monday at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St., 312-744-6630).
At 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Pops, the lineup features King Fleming, Willie Pickens, Dave Gordon, Scott Holman, Rob Ryndak, Corky McClerkin, Dave Flippo, Ron Surace, Sparrow, Don Bennett, Rick Ferguson, George Flynn, Marshall Vente.
On Wednesday, same time and place, a different lineup for “A Tribute to Hal Russell”: Mike Staron, Sparrow, Rick Shandling, Rich Fudoli.
Thursday, ditto, theme: “George Goes Latin” puts the spotlight on George Freeman, Alejo Poveda and Tatsu Aoki.
By June 23, there’s another CD release party, this time Martha Lorin’s “Come Walk With Me.” Show time is 9 p.m. at Pops.
Also at 9 p.m. June 23, a special concert in conjunction with the festival and with the Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Summer Solstice Celebration” will feature Aoki and Malachi Favors Maghostut. (It’s at the museum, 220 E. Chicago Ave., 312-280-2660.)
By June 24, Pallatto’s out of her engineering rags and slick, fronting a program called “The King and I,” with the King Fleming Trio. Show time is 9 p.m. at Pops.
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Rumors are Billings could make little guest appearances at any one of those gigs . . . sigh.