Dave’s Photo Blog

There was a remarkable event recently at Johnny D’s Uptown in Somerville: The New York Songwriters Circle. This show brought some great talent from both Boston and New York together for performances in the round at Johnny D’s.

I confess I had not seen a performance ‘in the round’ before. Basically, all the performers take a seat on the stage and then one at a time they come up and play a song. There were six performers (but one duo, so five ‘acts’) and they each sang three songs. I ended up enjoying the format – 15 songs in a couple of hours. But that doesn’t do justice to the show itself. This turned out to be a must-see performance. The level of talent assembled by the New York Songwriters Circle was impressive. I have no doubt that you will be hearing more about some of these performers again. For ten bucks, you could get nose-to-nose in an intimate setting with these artists and they are all in some stage of ascendancy in the music scene either here in Boston, in New York or nationally. It was a great deal: great music, great club and good food to boot. OK, so who were these musical stars? Let me run them down for you.

Mieka Pauley

Mieka Pauley is a star on the rise as evidenced by the rapidly accumulating list of contests she has won, including the New York Songwriters Circle 2008 Songwriting Contest, the Cosmopolitan Magazine StarLauch Competition, the NEMO/Starbucks Emerging Artist Award, the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival Songwriter Showcase and the BMI Rock Boat Song Contest. She’s just released an album, Elijah Drop Your Gun and she performed All The Same Mistakes as last of her three songs. Talk about confidence – she didn’t even play guitar for her first song. She simply put the guitar face-up and hammered it with her fist while she sang.

You’ll have to wait until the end of March to see Mieka play again locally – she’s scheduled to perform at the Barrington Stage in Pittsfield on March 28th. This is well worth a trip for Bostonians – your chance to say, “I saw her when…”

Julia Easterlin

Julia Easterlin opened the show with one of her unique loop-delay performances. She builds a texture of rhythm and music by recording sounds that she can make right at the microphone and then looping them. With each successive loop, she can add or enhance a pattern that is already recorded or switch a loop that has already been sampled in and out. Atop this fabric she sings and she has a fantastic voice – she was part of the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensemble. The first song she played was Go Straightaway – one of the sweetest love songs I have heard in a long time. I am not aware of any upcoming performances for Julia so keep an eye on her web page and the local listings – you will want to go see her the next time she plays.

Nicole Berke

I was at this show to photograph Nicole Berke for an interview posted recently. Nicole is a strong solo artist and she ended with a version of Frondescence that sounded great. The song as recorded has a lot of instruments and some special effects. But she had it arranged in a way that really worked well, including the ending where she wove in parts of the beginning of the song to layer the sound a bit. You can see Nicole at Toad on January 24 along with other venues around Massachusetts and Rhode Island this winter season – check out her event list on MySpace for details.

Amy Crawford

Amy Crawford was playing jazz piano at festivals all over the world by the age of 17. She moved to New York a few years back and played in jazz clubs all over town. Then she started writing songs and put together her band, Amy Crawford and the Electric. Adam Tressler is the guitarist – they played as a duo for this event. She released her first EP, Amy Crawford and the Electric this December. One of the songs she and Adam played, Secrets, is a great example of her style – upbeat, swinging with jazz influences and very appealing to a broad audience. You can catch her in Boston at the Huntington Theater on January 22nd. Adam is playing around a lot too, both with Amy Crawford and with other acts – check his MySpace page for details.

Seth Glier

Seth Glier is a musician who really has a broad talent. He writes captivating and meaningful lyrics and plays both guitar and piano beautifully. He open with the title song of his recent album, The Trouble With People. The last song he played, I Just Want To Make My Daddy Proud was a lament from the perspective of George W. Bush. It was really thought-provoking and got a few laughs as well. He starts touring again in February playing all over the east coast from Montréal to Tennessee, but you can see him locally at Club Passim on January 29th or at C3 on February 12th.

The New York Songwriters Circle at Johnny D’s is a regular event – it will be running the first Tuesday of every month. The next few circles are February 3rd, March 3rd, April 7th and June 2nd. Tickets are $10. Johnny D’s is located at 17 Holland Drive in Davis Square, Somerville, (617) 776-2004. Tina Shafer has been the Artistic Director for the New York Songwriters Circle for 19 years and a very talented musician and performer in her own right. The organization also hosts shows in New York at The Bitter End and has Lizanne Knott hosting circles in Philadelphia at The World Cafe. The performers for the next Boston show have not been announced yet, but based on what I saw at the December event I expect another fantastic show.