Wonder Woman

The multifarious music of the multilingual, multiracial, multitalented Keren Ann

Comments (0) By Maya Kroth Wednesday, Oct 26 2005

On another song, "La Forme et le Fond," Ann becomes Lola, Barry Manilow's favorite feather-bedecked showgirl. Back at the Casbah, she explains to the rapt crowd how "Copacabana" provided the unlikely inspiration for the melancholy tune, saying, "I've been dancing to this song since I'm, like, 5, and about two years ago I read the lyrics and realized it was, like, the saddest song of all time. This song is from the point of view of an old Lola looking back at her youth, at her very fresh feathers."

Looking back on the past year of Keren Ann's career, which has kept her on the road most of the time, some may see a taxing mess of airport terminals, interchangeable hotel lobbies, and lonely stretches of autobahn, but the singer is used to life on the road. "I was brought up going from one country to another," she says. "I still do that [while] touring. It's a mixture of feeling lost everywhere but at the same time very easily feeling at home everywhere. It's this sort of nonbalance that at the end of the day is a balance."

Yariv Milchan

Keren Ann: Any songwriter who takes her guitar to bed with her is OK in our book.

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Plays on Saturday, Oct. 29

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Legion of Honor as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival

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"I know people who have lived in the same town for 15 generations and just belong to one place, and they have exactly the same feelings and emotions as I do," she explains. "I think that feelings are something that you can have anywhere."