Unplugged View: It’s Raining Gems, Hallelujah!
by Aaron Rowan
by Aaron Rowan
Original songwriting…..the first love of Modesto Unplugged. We’re one of the few presenters in the area who value and emphasize original music, and our ‘Friday Night Folk Flight’ program is strong this month, welcoming artful and accomplished songwriters from Connecticut, California and Colorado. We begin on October 7 with a new voice debuting at my series: CT troubadour Anna May. Anna’s music is about memory and meditation, honoring a hope to enhance connection, humility, and joy among more people. Her style is streaked with tones of jazz, fresh interpretations of classic folk music, and alternative tragic Americana.
October 14, we feature NorCal minstrel Liz Ryder, one of my favorite folk songwriters based in CA. Liz is a British native with a style rooted in traditional English folk and a passion for rendering the old with a mind for the new. Accompanying herself with fingerstyle guitar, Celtic bouzouki, banjo, and sometimes folk harp, she plays both traditional and self-penned music of a dynamic and honest nature. Payton Mahoney of local youth-rock ensemble Portrait Of Elysia will warm up the evening with a few tunes.
October 28, it’s the return of a voice not heard in Modesto in far too long – one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in the MU-Verse. Xanthe Alexis has devoted her life to healing others, whether by guiding patients to recovery as a trauma therapist or transporting audiences to transcendence through soaring melodies and lush, hypnotic soundscapes. Xanthe’s songwriting grapples with anxiety and strength, worry and comfort, heartbreak and hope; and her sound hints at everything from Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten to Julien Baker and Feist. All showcases run 7:30-9:00 pm at The Dragonfly Art For Life, 1210 J St., $10 at the door. For an extra charge, you can also paint along to the music; there are frequent sip-and-paint sessions running concurrently with concerts, and more than one of my featured performers has walked away with a portrait created by a patron.
The full-band Americana show to catch this month is the record release party for Tiffany Rose & The Outlaw Hearts, supported by Chris Doud & The Salvage Co. Chris is the finest lyricist in all of Stanislaus County by my reckoning, and this is an evening I wouldn’t consider missing. Saturday 10/1 starting at 7:30, $10 at the door. Look for several more appearances by fantastic original songwriters before the year is out, and we hope to see you out supporting live music in Modesto.
Intimate performances. Infinite playlist. MODESTO UNPLUGGED. www.modestounplugged.com.
