Shelley Hirsch is a marvelous performer with remarkable vocal talents, charm and a wicked sense of humor. She is one of the best-knownimprovisers of the Downtown New York City scene, performing with virtually every major experimental artist in New York and Europe, but has thus far released only two albums of her own music (both released only in Europe). An award-winning radio play and Hirsch's most ambitious work, O Little Town Of East New York is a semi-autobiographical musical suite about growing up in Brooklyn in the '50s and '60s - reenactments and reminiscences of childhood, family, rites of passage, the ethnic melting pot, Johnny Mathis... It's a hilarious, nostalgic, touching and stunningly original album merging avant and pop sensibilities.