TORONTO -- During one of many funny stories that Jann Arden told last night at Massey Hall, the Calgary singer-songwriter admitted she's always been very nervous about performing in Toronto.

Or "the big town," as she called it.

It seems Arden had been coined "the new Carly Simon" by one of the music weeklies here and the designation didn't sit well.

"I rock for crying out loud," she insisted.

Well, actually, Arden doesn't but her rowdy sense of humour sure does.

Her often salty segues between songs, many from her latest album, Blood Red Cherry, more than made up for the lack of intensity in the live delivery of her pleasant-enough pop music.

When Arden wasn't explaining how she rotates her bras -- "the ladies know what I'm talking about," -- she was giving one of her band members a hard time for wearing a bathrobe on stage.

"Is that from the hotel?" she kidded.

Then there were the impressions of her mother: "Your dad and I were talking. What would it cost for you to get some dancers?"

It's hard to do justice to Arden's spot-on delivery. The truth is if she ever wanted to give up singing, she could do stand-up.

For now, she's got a successful music career, due in no small part to a truly beautiful voice and some early hit songs like Could I Be Your Girl? and Insensitive -- both of which were reworked acoustically last night with Arden's talented five-piece band.

Other standouts included The Sound Of and new songs Into The Sun, Waiting In Canada, and Mend, although the voice of Blue Rodeo's JimCuddy was sadly missing on that last one, a duet he sang with Arden on the album. (He was in Australia.)

The truth is that a lot of Arden's music, at least in a live setting, sounds a lot alike. And then she had to go and sing a rather sleepy rendition of Scarborough Fair during her encore.

Not helping Arden's cause last night was the rather stoic audience who, aside from the whistling, stomping and ultimately distracting "superfan" sitting in front of me, barely managed to clap between songs and then leapt to their feet at the end of the night for a standing ovation.

Confusing? You betcha. I'd be nervous too.

Last night's show kicked off a two-night stand at Massey Hall. Arden plays her second show tonight.

JAM! Rating: 3 out of 5