During Diane Birch’s performance at City Winery on Thursday night, she moved, in the space of one song, from succulent, breezy pop to gritty Southern soul to making gestures, at least, toward operatic vigor.
That number was “Happy Birthday,” sung for her horn player, Eric Bloom. It appears nowhere on Ms. Birch’s winsome new debut album, “Bible Belt” (S-Curve), and yet more than any other song in her show, it captured the whole of her voice, and a dash of vocal ambition to boot.
Mainly, though, Ms. Birch’s performance was an attack of mellow precision and a demonstration of the pleasures of the familiar (and the limitations thereof). Alternating between a Fender Rhodes and a piano, she was polished and sometimes chipper, working through a softly emphatic style honed to a sharp point by Carly Simon and Carole King three decades ago.
Midway through the night, as she competed with the rhythms of waiters and waitresses, Ms. Birch likened this gig to “playing at fancy hotels in Los Angeles.” And indeed, something was lost amid the clinking glasses, making it tougher to appreciate the subtle emotional touches of “Ariel,” the surprisingly jumpy gospelesque moments at the end of “Valentino” and the childlike frustration on “Nothing but a Miracle.” Her band — which also included Alex Foote on guitar, Jay Foote on bass and Spencer Cohen on drums — while agile, often overpowered her, and not with complexity.
Ms. Birch has an alluring look, with a hard curtain of bangs recalling Jane Birkin in her younger years; a ready back story (her father was an itinerant preacher, and she spent much of her childhood in Africa); and in what has become a young singer-songwriter hallmark, a semi-winking cover floating around on YouTube, of Haddaway’s 1993 dance-soul hit “What Is Love.” (She didn’t play it here; she probably should have.)
Lately, the most vivid revivalists of the period Ms. Birch seems most enamored of have come from across the Atlantic. Of those singers, largely British, Ms. Birch is most like Duffy: facile, versatile, but perhaps out of her depth when tackling soul music proper.
On the album, Ms. Birch’s soul poses are her least convincing, the muscle in her voice too narrow for real belting, and her backing, particularly with uncommitted horns, too complacent.
And as a singer with only faint shades of soul phrasing, you don’t want Betty Wright onstage with you, singing harmony. Even if soul was your sworn game, you’d probably want to avoid this fate: Ms. Wright, the ’70s R&B queen, is a powerhouse, with a fearsome voice and even more fearsome presence. (Lenny Kaye, of Patti Smith’s band, also joined Ms. Birch for a spell.)
But Ms. Wright was a producer of “Bible Belt,” and so, sporting a grand hat with a sparkling, Brobdingnagian bow, she joined Ms. Birch on “Don’t Wait Up” and “Choo Choo,” restraining herself all the way until a glorious shriek at the end of “Choo Choo.”
Ms. Birch, on the piano, was clearly working hard. “I had to break out in a sweat to keep up with her,” she said. But the perspiration became her, as would have a little more of it.
Diane Birch plays on June 29 at Joe’s Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village; (212) 967-7555, joespub.com.
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