Ruth Brown Lives!

Most famous to my generation for her turn as Motormouth Mabel in John Water's Hairspray (the film, not the musical), Rock'n'roll legend Ruth Brown was still going strong Friday evening at Au Bar, playing a short set that spanned the past 50 years of black music in one swoop.

She sang homages to Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, and her own mother, and charmed the crowd with an astonishingly strong voice for a 77-year old who, as she informed us, had withstood a stroke doctors said would keep her from singing again.

One felt in the presence of a living national treasure, and one who, rather than playing the imperious diva, ambly wandered into the audience after the set for a friendly, Southern-style meet and greet.

"Come again!" she said, clutching my hand firmly. She plays nightly through the month of February.