Palmetto Records; August 2008
While listening to If Less Is More : Nothing Is Everything, you can tell that Kate McGarry loved rock ‘n’ roll from a young age. (On her cover of “Let’s Face the Music,” she breaks into a vocal climax evocative of the Police.) But, for whatever reason, McGarry eventually decided to go the jazz vocalist route. Her best strict jazz performance is the relaxed “Caminhos Cruzados,” which sounds like it belongs in a smoky club in Paris, but jazz weaves in and out of most of the album. It is difficult to place McGarry into any specific genre. Eclectic to say the least, she performs well in many musical avenues. She even puts a bossa nova spin on Bob Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Simply put, this album, with its many innovative covers, is for those Boomers who miss their old rock records, but just can’t stand the noise anymore.