Music on TV

On nights when I don’t have a demo booked, Anne and I catch up on a few shows. I fell for the quirky character Nadia Vulvokov on Russian Doll and caught up with her quirky personifier, Natasha Lyonne, on Poker Face, where she plays a human lie detector. Ms. Lyonne’s Colomboesque riddle solver finds plenty of mischief to get into while tooling around in a ’69 Barracuda. The show is fun, quirky and quite adept at lacing the music bed with a mix of faves and deep cuts, particularly from the 60s and 70s.

The music selections often catch my ear with the ring of vague familiarity. “Whoa, who’s that?”, I catch myself thinking as I reach for Shazam. Sometimes, it’s a voice I haven’t heard since grade school, singing a deep cut from their catalog. As in the case of Bobbie Gentry singing, “Seasons Come, Seasons Go”, from her 5th album “Touch ‘Em with Love”.

Or it’s a voice I feel I should know but can’t place. I mean, how did I miss James Carr? If Otis Redding had a rival, it was James Carr. Check out the album “You Got My Mind Messed Up”, and you’ll see what I mean.

From there, Poker Face runs the gamut, from Kenny Loggins to They Might Be Giants (in the same episode, no less!), to Santo & Johnny, and John Cale.

Music supervisors Thomas Golubic, and Olivia Schlictling have done an excellent job pulling selections that fit the tone and humor of the show, and laying down musical treats for the attentive ear. A few cuts have made their way into the demo list.