Erin Bode

Erin Bode There's a montage in Play Misty for Me in which Clint Eastwood and Donna Mills are seen walking on the beach, waves crashing behind them, then frolicking in the woods while Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" plays. The purity and beauty of the music set against those tranquil, daisy-chained images completely eases the tension created by Eastwood's stalker girlfriend (played by Jessica Walter) a few scenes earlier. While St. Louis-based singer Erin Bode doesn't necessarily recall Flack, she captures the same sentiment in nearly every one of her songs. There's an aching beauty and clarity in her delivery. Like a lighter and airier Cassandra Wilson, Bode applies a pop spin to jazz standards. Elsewhere, on songs such as "Holiday," a tune from Over and Over, her latest effort, she evokes Tapestry-era Carole King, with the freshness and lilting sensibility of Lori Carson.