Alice Ripley, winner of the 2009 Tony Award for the Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of the bipolar Diana Goodman in Next to Normal, is now out with a 10-song collection of covers of some of her favorite rock music, called Daily Practice, Volume I.
The title, she explains, comes from her habit of winding down in her room after her demanding stage performances with her acoustic guitar and some of best loved songs. It is as though she were able to transfer all of the dramatic intensity bottled up in the interpretation of her character to the music. These are covers like you've not heard before.
If you are looking for something pleasant to wile away an hour, these aren't for you. If you are looking for lavish production values, look elsewhere. If you are looking for naked passion, you've come to the right place. There is a voice. There is a guitar. And above all there is passion.
The songs she has chosen are not only her favorites; if you are a lover of rock, many of them are your favorites as well. The album opens with a standout performance of Carole King's "It's Too Late." In Carly Simon's "Anticipation," her focus is on the present moment, when one can never be sure about the future. These are, after all as she cuts off abruptly, "the good old days."
R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" is a rich vocal with perhaps a few echoes of the original. The Police's "Message in a Bottle" is an emphatic plea with a driving chorus. Her voice becomes an insistent cry. Lucinda Williams' "Essence" is a power ballad delivered full throttle with little of the bluesy feel of the original, but with all of its passion.
She transforms Nanci Griffith's wispy version of "The Flyer" into a haunting memory with the power of her vocal. Ripley is at her most intense in the cover of Alanis Morissette's ranting tirade "You Oughta Know." It is a vocal filled with bitterness of betrayal and shame.
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