Events: Diane Birch

The talented, and pretty damn good-looking, Diane Birch.

After coming off a whirlwind tour as support for Nick Jonas and the Administration (which, I hope to all that is supreme on this plane, will end the Jonas Brothers and propel the actually talented one, Nick, to stardom), Diane Birch is back in New York to perform this Saturday at NYU’s Skirball Center.

So many of you are asking, “Daniel, who the hell is Diane Birch?”

Only one of the best young acts to not yet break out – and not having broken out is an understatement. She’s already appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (which I’ll be profiling in this week’s Saturday Night Stuff I Like), and the dearly-departed Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. As songwriter, vocalist and pianist on her debut album, Bible Belt (released last year on S-Curve Records), she provides a great set of tracks basically discussing her own life with emotion and brass that I simply haven’t been able to stop listening to.

You should, at the very least, listen to her two big tracks, “Nothing But a Miracle” (I suggest you listen to her live version from the Late Show, as it features the wonderful horn section of the CBS Orchestra) and “Rewind”, if not pick up Bible Belt – I promise you, you’d be hooked. And if you can, go hear this concert – she does a great bunch of covers, from Hall & Oates to her seminal reinterpretation of Haddaway’s “What is Love” on vocal and Rhodes. The price seems right, and it’s your last chance to see her before she takes off to go on a European tour!

Diane Birch will play NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, February 13th at 8:00; tickets are $25.