Diane Birch

Thu., June 3, 8 p.m., $17.50-$19, Balcony at the Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-6888, thetroc.com.

by M.J. Fine

Marc Baptiste

singer-songwriter

Love Carole King but don't want to shell out the big bucks/sit in the nosebleed seats/snooze through James Taylor's songs when the pair plays the Wachovia Center later this month? Try Diane Birch, who captures the spirit of King's classic Tapestry on her debut, Bible Belt (S-Curve). At 27, Birch missed the 1970s entirely, but her rollicking piano ("Choo Choo"), Brill Building soul ("Fire Escape"), sly horns ("Fools") and wistful strings ("Magic View") strongly suggest she worships at the altar of King, Laura Nyro and other queen-bee singer-songwriters. (Birch's dad, a Seventh-day Adventist preacher who tried to shield his daughter from secular music, would no doubt be horrified to imagine her bowing before such heathens, but he merits a measure of immortality in her lyrics.) With all due respect to King, you can see Birch for a less than a third of the price, in a venue less than an 80th of the size, without having to worry about snoring during the quiet part of "Sweet Baby James."