THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

High five

What counts in music today

By Sarah Rodman
Globe Staff / August 19, 2011

E-mail this article

Invalid E-mail address
Invalid E-mail address

Sending your article

Your article has been sent.

Text size – +

Just as Kris Delmhorst was planning her kicky new album of Cars covers - which was released this week and appropriately dubbed “Cars’’ - the legendary Boston band reunited. A longtime fan, the Brooklyn-bred singer-songwriter was thrilled that Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes agreed to play ukulele on “Cars.’’ As part of the singer-songwriter collective Redbird, which also features Peter Mulvey and Jeffrey Foucault, Delmhorst will play three shows at Club Passim this weekend. We chatted with her this week about the five cars she has owned over the years. Fittingly, the ever-touring troubadour was in her car - but not driving.

1. 1983 Datsun Sentra. Delmhorst got her first ride for “zero dollars’’ but had only a rudimentary knowledge of how to actually drive it. It languished in a parking lot until someone showed her how to put it in reverse. She dubbed it “Mo,’’ short for “Mo’ Car for Your Money.’’

2. 1988 Subaru Wagon. This “perfectly respectable car’’ got Delmhorst around when she lived in Watertown in the mid-’90s. It became less respectable, or pleasant anyway, when 10 gallons of raw milk she was bringing home to make cheese spilled in the back. “It was brutal.’’

3. 1993 Toyota Corolla. “That was the only time that I owned a car during the same decade it was made,’’ she says with a laugh. “I toured in it for 10 years hardcore. It was a really great car.’’

4. Ford Taurus Wagon, year unknown. “A complete disaster,’’ she says of the clunker she bought from her dad for $25 and was able to drive only for three weeks before it conked out in a plume of steam. “I had to twist his arm, but eventually he gave me my money back.’’

5. 1997 Honda Accord. The car she called us from. “Really, the only thing that’s exciting about it is that it’s eggplant-colored.’’

Redbird performs at Club Passim tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets: $35. 617-492-7679. www.clubpassim.com

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.