A Bicoastal Musical Dialogue Comes to Wellfleet
Anne Stott met Arielle Silver four years ago online during the first week of the pandemic lockdown. The two singer-songwriters were participants in a 16-week intensive session for musicians. “Arielle and I became good friends,” Stott says. “We thought it would be fun to play a show together.” They will perform at Wellfleet Preservation Hall (335 Main St.) on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m.
The concert will kick off Silver’s tour of the Northeast. Each artist will perform back-and-forth minisets. “We like our songs to be in dialogue with each other,” Stott says. “But we also like giving each of us time to create a set and tell a story.”
Stott describes herself as a singer-songwriter of cinematic alt-rock. “I have an indie, grungy side to my sound,” she says, “but I also like music that’s more atmospheric and expansive.” She calls her sound “Garbage meets Lana del Ray meets something a little more acoustic.”
Stott, who lives in Wellfleet, released the first single from her forthcoming album, Watershed Synapse Experience, in January. (Coincidentally, Los Angeles-based Silver released her own album titled Watershed last year.) The next single, “Water to Blood,” will come out on April 19, coinciding with Earth Day.
“It’s a climate crisis pop anthem,” Stott says. “I’m deeply concerned about the planet. The song is a call for more urgency.” The song has the simple melodies characteristic of a protest song with the instrumentation and mixing of electronic indie pop. “I feel very strongly that my music sounds like me,” Stott says. “There’s this moment that happens when I’m writing songs where the song leaves my body, and I know that it is its own separate entity in the world, even if I’m the only one who knows about it yet.”
While Stott says there are no definite plans to perform a duet with Silver, she’s hopeful it may happen. “Come to the show and find out,” she says.
Tickets are $25 at wellfleetpreservationhall.org. —Eve Samaha
Tim Dickey’s Bluegrass Banjo Hits the Stage
Tim Dickey had been performing the song “Asheville” with his band Toast & Jam for years before fiddler Jo Miller told him the song was featured in the 2016 Broadway musical Bright Star. Written by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell and actor-comedian Steve Martin (an acclaimed banjo player himself), the 23-song score won a Tony Award nomination.
So when Miller told him that Cape Cod Community College’s performing arts program would be staging that musical, Dickey thought he should sign up. “It takes somebody like Steve Martin to put banjo music on Broadway, right?” he says.
Dickey, who lives in Truro, will also play mandolin and electric and acoustic guitar when Bright Star premieres at the Tilden Arts Center (2240 Iyannough Road, West Barnstable) on Thursday, April 11. He will play alongside Miller and three other Cape musicians.
The show is based on the life of literary editor Alice Murphy and focuses on two of its chapters: in 1920s North Carolina, when she falls in love with the son of a prominent family, and years later when she is a writing mentor to a young soldier back from World War II. “Bright Star takes a very clear, unclouded look at the lives of young women in the 1920s, particularly in small rural communities,” says director Vana Trudeau.
“It’s an incredible score,” says Dickey, noting that the sheet music lacks details for the banjo parts. He’s been practicing by using enhancements published by other musicians and listening to a concert version on YouTube. “This has been a fun challenge,” he says.
Dickey has been performing on the Outer Cape since the 1960s, including 15 summers with the Provincetown Jug Band and appearances with the Cape Cod Fiddlers, Chandler Travis bands, and the Outer Cape Chorale. He has also performed and directed music at the Academy of Performing Arts in Orleans.
Bright Star runs from Thursday, April 11 through Saturday, April 20. Tickets are $5 to $25 and are sold with a “pay-what-feels-fair” policy. Call 774-330-4044 for information. —Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
Nancy Jenner’s Living Seascapes
It’s always awkward when a realist painter is complimented with the phrase “It looks just like a photograph!” While many painters might appreciate an acknowledgment of their technical chops, most don’t intend to mimic photography no matter how realistically they might paint.
Nancy Jenner is no exception, although from a distance or in reproduction it’s hard to figure out whether what you’re looking at is a photograph or a painting. What distinguishes Jenner’s paintings is the experience of seeing them in person and up close, which is currently possible at the Wellfleet Adult Community Center (715 Old King’s Hwy.).
Jenner’s paintings of Outer Cape seascapes capture the expansive feel of the sea. Her compositions direct the viewer’s eyes from the space beneath one’s feet all the way to the horizon line. This sense of composition — which captures the experience of moving one’s head up and down as one surveys the landscape — is markedly different from the fixed position that a camera imposes on a scene.
This body of work, which she began in Wellfleet during the pandemic, captures the mercurial nature of light, color, and weather on the Outer Cape. She’s also fascinated with the sea as a surface reflecting color from above and from the sea floor below. The foregrounds of her paintings are particularly evocative, with snake-like marks depicting white foam and transparent glazes describing the experience of viewing sand and rocks through water.
Like the surface of the sea, a painting is both an image and a surface itself. Jenner’s images might be as legible as photographs, but the real intrigue is are the surfaces. Up close, they dissolve like breaking waves into splatters of paint, glazes of color, scraped-down panels, and delicate brushstrokes.
The show is on view through the end of April. See wellfleetcoa.org for information. —Abraham Storer
The Nields Are More Than a Sister Act
Nerissa Nields knew she was a songwriter when she was seven years old. “It was absolutely always my intention,” she says, even if she didn’t consider singing to be her “special gift.” But when her younger sister Katryna began singing her songs as a teenager, Nerissa realized she had found her ideal collaborator: “That’s the voice I wanted to sing my songs,” she says. The two have been performing together ever since.
At First Encounter Coffeehouse on Saturday, April 13, the Nields will perform songs spanning their long career — from the 1990s to their newest album, “Circle of Days,” a collection that reflects the cycles of the calendar year and the way time was experienced during the pandemic.
Based in Northampton, the Nields first performed in a trio and then a five-piece band. In the last two decades, as both started families, they have focused on playing as a duo.
The sisters have 21 albums. Most were produced by Dave Chalfant, who accompanies them on guitar and bass — and is also Katryna’s husband. “We think in terms of albums,” says Nerissa. “As a songwriter I write albums that say, ‘This is an era of our life.’ ” Although Katryna sometimes comes up with ideas for songs, Nerissa writes nearly all of them herself. Many are inspired by the melodies and harmonies of artists like the Beatles and the Everly Brothers.
“Katryna and I have always loved harmony,” says Nerissa. “The songs I write tend to lend themselves naturally to harmony.” Generally, Katryna will sing the lead vocals in a higher voice as Nerissa completes the harmony with a lower one — a division of vocal roles more common in church music than in pop. As sisters, their voices are similar in timbre and blend effortlessly. “I think the secret to our longevity and success is that we really listen to each other,” says Nerissa. “We deeply value each other’s strengths.”
The show at First Encounter (220 Samoset Road, Eastham) begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 at firstencounter.org. —Dorothea Samaha
