Lori Carsillo

Shedding new light on the American Songbook, San Francisco’s Lori Carsillo is a 21st century torch singer who knows that the bluer the flame, the hotter the blaze. Interpreting classic ballads with an emotionally restrained, unfussy sensibility, Carsillo has been a quietly compelling figure on the Bay Area scene for nearly two decades. 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).