Long Way Out Wednesday 3: Oh, Aunt Clara!

Lily of the Valley This week’s free track is “Oh, Aunt Clara!” By the time the week is out, I will have been to Las Vegas for the first time. With such a showbiz-oriented city on my horizon this week, I thought I would give a nod to my most showbiz-y song on The Long Way Out.

This song is about my great-great-grandmother’s sister, Clara, who was a vaudeville and burlesque performer in the New York/New Jersey area in the 1930s and ‘40s. Although I never got to meet her, I’ve heard so many stories about her from my grandmother and other relatives that I feel I almost know her. She was quite a character in the family, and was known for being very religiously devoted but also extremely foul-mouthed (and hence, this song contains the album’s only f-bomb). Her signature number in vaudeville was the song “Ja-Da,” which I sing a portion of as an introduction to the song.

“Oh, Aunt Clara!” is made fabulous by many musicians, including Raky Sastri on drums, Sean Peters on trumpet, and Brendan Cooney playing slide piano for the excerpt of “Ja-Da.” This is by far the liveliest track on the album, so grab it while you can—it’s free through next Tuesday!