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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > May > 08 > Entry
Billy Joel’s daughter tests her musical wings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AP Photo/Hard Rock Cafe, Jenni Girtman
Singer/songwriter Alexa Ray Joel, 20-year-old daugher of Billy Joel, performs the Velvet Underground at the Hard Rock Cafe Atlanta on Saturday.
You can see it in her huge eyes: Alexa Ray Joel is her daddy’s girl. And at age 20 last year, the daughter of pop/rock legend Billy Joel and ex-wife Christie Brinkley dropped out of New York University to forge a musical career. She’s launched her first tour.
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| AP Photo/Hard Rock Cafe, Jenni Girtman |
| Singer/songwriter Alexa Ray Joel, 20-year-old daugher of Billy Joel, performs the Velvet Underground at the Hard Rock Cafe Atlanta on Saturday. |
“I want to prove I have something to say before I get a record deal,” she told Buzz before her first concert in Atlanta at the Velvet Underground in Hard Rock Cafe downtown Saturday night.
A classically trained pianist, Joel said she’s embarrassed when her proud papa brags she’s a better pianist than he is. But he’s wise enough to stay out of her way. “When I’m just starting out, it’s important to let me do my own thing,” she said. “If he were to come [to her concerts], it’d be about him.”
Like many sons and daughters of famous musicians, Joel has to grapple with the pressures of comparisons. (For irony’s sake, Buzz sat Joel down next to a framed Rolling Stone cover of Jakob Dylan, Bob’s son.)
“I have to block it out,” Joel said. She said she watches her dad in concert and realizes that “I have a different style, and I’m a different person. In time, I’d love to be as great a songwriter and performer as he is.”
For the curious, she evokes Norah Jones and Fiona Apple. She has two sampler songs at www.myspace.com/alexarayjoel.
Club opens — despite its drinking problem
For a decade, the Uptown Comedy Corner on Peachtree Road was the premiere black stand-up comedy club in Atlanta. It shut down in 2003, but nobody filled the void until original Uptown owner Gary Abdo and his partners found a spot on Marietta Street, formerly occupied by a Georgia Tech student hangout facetiously named the Library.
“We need a comedy home,” said local standup comic Dantee Ray, who did a few minutes on opening night last Thursday at the new Uptown before about 70 people. Developing black comics have had to make do hitting weekly comedy or open mike nights at places such as Frozen Palace and Barnacle’s, battling loud TVs and distracted drinkers.
But the new Uptown, which seats about 390 people, lacks a liquor license. The Library’s alcohol license was revoked last year after the city of Atlanta documented cases of underage drinking. To punish the landlord, nobody in that space is allowed to have a liquor license for 12 months.
Abdo, whose original club helped propel the careers of comics such as Monique and Earthquake, knows he needs a liquor license to make the club work. Still, he decided to open. His attorney, Hakim Hilliard, said the city technically didn’t have a license to revoke; the Library never renewed its license in 2005. But the city liquor license review board did not agree. It’s now up to Mayor Shirley Franklin to decide.
Abdo said he plans to file an appeal in Fulton County Superior Court in June if he doesn’t get the license. “For them to deny us is just ludicrous,” he told Buzz. “I feel like I’m in ‘The Twilight Zone.’ ”
Aparo across the spectrum
Angie Aparo is a dichotomous performer. The McDonough singer/songwriter, who performed to a rapt crowd at Smith’s Olde Bar Saturday night, embodies intensity while singing, tackling pain and loss. Yet between songs, he’s the ultimate quipster.
“I love you!” a fan yelled.
“I love you like my future ex-wife!” he responded.
At the same time, Aparo mocked and paid homage to various rock clichés. He noted that acts that say, “This is the last song” are lying. It’s merely a precursor to an encore. “I’ll do it anyway, because I’m [expletive] needy!” he cracked.
And he took fans’ requests for “Stairway to Heaven” and “Free Bird” to heart by doing a combo he dubbed “Stairway to Free Bird.”
Random bits
Atlanta rapper Bone Crusher joins the fourth edition of VH1’s addictive series “Celebrity Fit Club 4,” set to air in August. The other diet-seeking semi-luminaries include singer Carnie Wilson, former “Sopranos” mobster Vincent Pastore, R&B singer Angie Stone, former “NYPD Blue” star Nick Turturro, “Baywatch” babe Erika Eleniak and classic TV stars Tina Yothers from “Family Ties” and lovable “Love Boat” bartender Ted Lange …
Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott married Sunday on a private tropical island in Fiji, People magazine reported. “We didn’t want to wait another day to get married,” Spelling said. Spelling, 32, and McDermott, 39, met last year while filming the TV movie “Mind Over Murder.”
Star birthdays
Comedian Don Rickles is 80. Singer Philip Bailey is 55. Drummer Alex Van Halen of Van Halen is 53. Actress Melissa Gilbert is 42. Singer Enrique Iglesias is 31.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-5688 or e-mail: rho@ajc.com.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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