Cabaret’s Callaway salutes rock’s Ronstadt at the Palladium Side Door

“Some people will say ‘Why is she doing this? I don’t understand. This is the Ann Hampton Callaway that sings pretty jazz songs!’”

Cabaret artist Ann Hampton Callaway is imagining kneejerk reactions to her latest show, a tribute to Linda Ronstadt.

After three decades in the spotlight, Callaway has learned that her instincts are worth trusting. “I think an artist, when they surprise themselves and do something that may be out of our comfort zone, it makes our lives more interesting,” she says in a telephone interview with the Catalyst. “And the audience gets the fun of that.”

Callaway’s Linda Ronstadt Songbook is sold out Thursday at the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Café.

“I’ve spent a part of my recent career honoring women who’ve inspired me – including people like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Peggy Lee and Barbra Streisand,” she explains. “And these shows have been a great way of me being a storyteller and a singer.

“And by singing songs from their fascinating careers, and their interesting lives, and telling their stories, I’m combing the talents of my two very interesting parents. My dad was a famous interviewer/journalist, and my mom was a brilliant singer, pianist and voice teacher.”

Ronstadt, in her early years as a chart-topping singer of rock, folk and county tunes, was an inspiration for the Chicago born-and-bred Callaway.

“Linda, to me, was one of the most prolific contemporary artists who was able to defy the orders from her producers to only do rock ‘n’ roll,” Callaway explains. “She just wanted to do the music she loved. And so her career spans from rock ‘n’ roll to country, to standards, to film music, to Mexican music, to opera – and she did it all so well.

“And I’m an artist who’s spent my life doing many kinds of music. And sometimes the jazz police distrust me because I’ve been on Broadway, or the cabaret people call me a jazz artist. They don’t know what to do with people who are diverse.”

Ronstadt no longer sings due to the onset of Parkinson’s Disease; that was another reason Callaway decided to put this particular show together, as a way of keeping the songs alive for people who simply love them.

“I’m not trying to pretend I’m a rock star, I’m just singing great songs the way I know how to sing them. And I’m acting them in a way that I think I’m breathing new life into some of these songs that were just so taken for granted as ‘Hey, hit songs. We’ve heard ‘em a million times.’

“I’m actually re-visiting them within the discipline of what I do, as a singing actress. People say to me oh, I never heard ‘Desperado’ the way I heard it from you. Because I’m bringing what I learned in my life, and what I learned in my craft, to put something new into these things.”

She’ll be accompanied onstage by pianist Billy Stritch, who’ll provide backup vocals, and duets with Callaway on several numbers.

“Initially,” Callaway says, “I thought I would focus on her standards. But I realized what was more exciting to me was going into her old fabulous rock hits, and pop hits, and the kind of music that I grew up listening to and loving, that I haven’t really had the chance to get that part of me out lately.

“I do a real interesting take on ‘Tracks of My Tears.’ It’s much funkier than what Linda did. ‘Poor Poor Pitiful Me,’ I make it into the precursor to the #MeToo movement. It’s been a really interesting artistic journey for me to put this show together.”

She was surprised, and delighted, to be invited to perform this Songbook at the Kennedy Center last week, just days before Ronstadt herself was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor.

“One people know who I am, they know that putting me in a box is a big mistake,” Callaway points out. “I have a very large musical vocabulary, And I surround myself with people who help me grow as an artist. I think Linda and Ella Fitzgerald had that in common.

“If I want to keep growing the way my heroes keep growing, I need to be doing things that compel me. New parts of me that maybe have not had enough attention, enough exploration.”

Thursday’s Ann Hapton Callaway performance is sold out; future Palladium cabaret dates: New Yorker Steve Ross (Feb. 6) with Cole Porter and Beyond, and Australian cabaret artist Queenie van de Zant (March 21) with Blue: The Songs of Joni Mitchell.