Safe Inside the Day

Baby Dee intones her majestically mournful songs in a slow, deliberate folk tenor, as she wanders towards her richly crafted songs' conclusions. SAFE INSIDE THE DAY, released on the ever-reliable Drag City label, finds the eccentric singer-songwriter at 50-something reflecting on her childhood in Cleveland and growing up as a girl inside a boy's body (something that Dee would address medically later in life). Her creations meld cabaret and vaudeville themes with folk-pop and a dash of Tom Waits swagger, even adding a bit of sea shanty on "The Early King" or Broadway torch song on "When You Found Me." Baby Dee has honed her craft over the course of a remarkable life, and on her 2008 effort she pours it all out.