Younger Joel finds her own, passionate singing style

Younger Joel finds her own, passionate singing style
Syracuse Post Standard - Syracuse,NY,USA
By Patrick Dacey. What we know: Alexa Ray Joel is the daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley. What we didn't know: She can really sing. ...

What we know: Alexa Ray Joel is the daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley.

What we didn't know: She can really sing.

Saturday night on the Taste of Syracuse Main Stage, piano player and vocalist Alexa Ray Joel and band members (bassist Jimmy Riot, guitarist Demian Sims and drummer Scottie Garapolo) got a late start to the night's musical showcase. They appeared onstage in front of a disgruntled, rain-soaked crowd after a 45-minute delay.

But any ill will quickly disappeared as Joel exuded a smooth yet edgy voice through a set list that converged with rock, soul and blues to mesh into something completely her own.

Joel, 20, certainly kept her cool while playing in front of what was her biggest audience to date. Dressed in a T-shirt and rolled-up blue jeans while sitting behind a keyboard, the strikingly beautiful Joel said:

"I write all my own songs. It's important for you to know that. No one writes them for me, not my dad."

Billy Joel saw part of the show from backstage, according to his daughter, but he did not emerge in public.

Showing influences from her iconic father, Alexa Ray Joel sang with his passion, but lacked his lyrical grace.

"The Revolution Song" preached an individual defiance toward societal control that demanded, "Let's get up on our feet/Let's take it to the streets/We'll show 'em how it's done/I say we start a revolution today." However, she slid into a rather pompous claim for such a young woman: "I've seen it all, but I still can't relate/to any woman or man."

The existential matter grew deeper with the depressing number "Resistance," in which Joel asked the unknown to "answer my existence in the fields of dark resistance."

It was when Joel got more personal that her true talent shone with the soulful numbers "Far Away From Here" and "Sapphire Night."

As Joel proved she had the chops to record her debut album, a performer who's dished out nine records of greatest hits followed her.

The much more punctual Eddie Money took to the stage with the swagger of a frontman who's been on the road for more than three decades.

"Let's get wet," Money said, sliding out from under the stage awning as he opened the show with his classic "Two Tickets to Paradise," switching the words to "Two Tickets to Syracuse."

All the hits were on display and the crowd sang right along as Money belted out a set that included: "Gimme Some Water," "Shakin', " and "Think I'm in Love."

The highlight came when Money asked, "You got room in the car for me? You can take me home tonight," cruising through the memory-inducing hit with Alexa Ray Joel beside him singing the refrain: "Be my little baby."