Songs We Love: Kat Edmonson, 'Old Fashioned Gal'

Kat Edmonson's Old Fashioned Gal comes out April 27.

Glynis Carpenter/Courtesy of the artist

NATE CHINEN
January 8, 201811:00 AM ET

A little over 75 years ago, Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire introduced "I'm Old Fashioned," a graceful, guileless ballad that dismisses the latest trends in favor of timeless romantic verities: the glow of moonlight, the holding of hands, "the starry song that April sings."

The song — by Jerome Kern, with Johnny Mercer's lyrics — forms an elegant set piece in the film musical You Were Never Lovelier (with Hayworth's singing ghosted by Nan Wynn). It has since become a jazz standard, with dozens if not hundreds of versions on record.

Kat Edmonson, an avowed fan of Astaire's films, probably had "I'm Old Fashioned" in the back of her mind when she wrote "Old Fashioned Gal," the title track of an album due out in the spring. But as a socially observant singer-songwriter in a social media age, she's also well aware that the bar for antiquarianism has moved since 1942. So instead of waxing poetic about the moon and stars, she pines for a respite from pop-up ads and notifications, for a phone "inextricably connected to a wall."

read more at: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/08/575965997/songs-we-love-kat-edmonson-old-fashioned-gal