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12
SATURDAY
Keren Ann is a long-haired female singer-songwriter who strums an acoustic guitar, but she’s a lot more than that stereotype. The Israeli-born daughter of a Russian Jewish father and a Dutch-Javanese mother, this cosmopolitan chanteuse was raised in Paris from the age of 11 and has incorporated such influences as Françoise Hardy, Nick Drake, and Chet Baker, not to mention Joni Mitchell. Other cafe folkies might claim some of those inspirations, but they don’t convey them with the exquisite pop melodies and expertly placed instrumental interludes of this Chickfactor ’zine fave. On last year’s Not Going Anywhere, she was at her finest when displaying breathy, carefully enunciated phrasing, often accompanied by a sole melancholy trumpet or a haunting string section, though the cadences of her precious English lyrics sometimes wandered into Suzanne Vega territory. Ever the globetrotter, Keren Ann recently completed Nolita, her French- and English-tinged impressions of her recent residency in Manhattan. She plays with A Girl Called Eddy at 3 p.m. at Iota Club & Cafe, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. $12. (703) 522-8340. (Steve Kiviat)