Lori Carsillo

She’s walked down some interesting roads during that time, recording a lovely children’s album, Lullabies for Little Dreamers, and two CDs with the Theremin-powered Project: Pimento, which turns familiar songs into an uncanny retro-space-age soundtrack. But she’s best known as a thoughtful song stylist with an excellent ear for material ideally suited for her light, unaffected vocals documented on four critically praised albums on her label Tru Blu Lu Records, including 2014’s Sugar and Smoke, which encompasses Bacharach, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Bob Dorough, and Cole Porter (a particular Carsillo specialty). Her 2018 album A Dream or Two is a gorgeous pianoless session with lithe arrangements that accentuate her emotionally unvarnished approach, and more recently, she recorded a pair of singles for use as part of two short film soundtracks. In Carsillo’s hands, love songs smolder with a cool and inviting glow.