Wellfleet Preservation Hall’s Feed Your Love Open Mic series, held every third Wednesday at 7 p.m., returns on June 16th, “live in the backyard” at long last. Registration is free at wellfleetpreservationhall.org.
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Wellfleet Preservation Hall’s Feed Your Love Open Mic series, held every third Wednesday at 7 p.m., returns on June 16th, “live in the backyard” at long last. Registration is free at wellfleetpreservationhall.org.
Sarah Swain & the Oh Boys present the fourth and final of their “Frying Pan Sessions,” broadcast from Wellfleet’s Frying Pan Gallery, on Saturday, April 17th, at 7 p.m. Watch at wellfleetpreservationhall.org. If performing is more your thing, Wellfleet Preservation Hall presents a virtual Feed Your Love Open Mic on Wednesday, April 21st, at 7 p.m. Email [email protected] to register.
Wellfleet Preservation Hall presents a virtual Feed Your Love Open Mic on Wednesday, February 17th, at 7 p.m. Register to perform by emailing [email protected], or sit back and listen at wellfleetpreservationhall.org.
Wellfleet Preservation Hall presents a virtual Feed Your Love Open Mic on Wednesday, January 20th, at 7 p.m. Register to perform by emailing [email protected], or just watch at wellfleetpreservationhall.org.
Wellfleet Preservation Hall and WOMR are hosting a virtual poetry reading, via Zoom, with the winners of the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest. It will take place on Thursday, November 12th, 7 p.m. Email [email protected] for the link. Preservation Hall is also hosting a virtual Feed Your Love Open Mic on Wednesday, November 18th, 7 p.m. Contact [email protected] to participate in this free event.
Wellfleet Preservation Hall and WOMR are hosting a virtual poetry reading, via Zoom, with the winners of the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest. It will take place on Thursday, November 12th, 7 p.m. Email [email protected] for the link. Preservation Hall is also hosting a virtual Feed Your Love Open Mic on Wednesday, November 18th, 7 p.m. Contact [email protected] to participate in this free event.
By Will Powers
Wellfleet singer-songwriter Alex Brewer’s new album, Unquoted, is a tribute to his community. Brewer is fascinated by artistic scenes — Paris in the ’20s, Laurel Canyon in the ’60s — and he finds particular inspiration from Provincetown during the 1910s, when the town was populated by the likes of John Reed and Eugene O’Neill.
Hoping to bolster the present-day music scene here and showcase its talent, Brewer, who has hosted the Feed Your Love Open Mic at Wellfleet Preservation Hall and been a featured artist at the open mic at the Mews Coffeehouse in Provincetown, has assembled an impressive group of Cape-based artists to perform on Unquoted. The sole exception is a bagpiper, Jim McKenna, from Billerica.
Brewer, 32, lives in one of the hip mid-century cottages of the Colony of Wellfleet on Chequessett Neck Road. He sings the lead on only two songs on Unquoted. He says he was partly inspired by John Prine, who died of Covid-19 in April, and the 2010 album Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows, in which Prine’s songs are covered by other musicians.
“There’s no reason why a collection of one person’s songs sung by other people has to be a reward for a long career of songwriting,” Brewer says. “It’s just a different way of doing things.”
He sees himself as a writer first: a lyricist and a poet. In conversation, he often quotes lines of poetry from memory to help illustrate points, and his writing shed — built from scraps salvaged from his work as a carpenter — has a floor-to-ceiling shelf of books built into the wall. Jon Evans, a multi-instrumentalist and producer who recorded Unquoted at his Brick Hill Studio in Orleans, thinks of Brewer as a “renaissance man.”
Brewer began composing music and writing songs in high school in New York City, and his obsession with Bob Dylan and Lord Byron led him to study English at Colgate University. In college, he immersed himself in the poetry of Robert Frost, whom he still admires.
A couple of weeks ago, Brewer read “animal poetry” from his home for a Payomet Performing Arts Center live-stream. Towards the end of the program, he casually said, “We should replace religion with the poetry of Robert Frost.” Somehow, coming from Brewer, who is warm and upbeat, it felt less like a rejection of religion than an endorsement of Frost.
“I would call Alex primarily a writer,” says Tianna Esperanza, a local singer-songwriter who performs on Unquoted. “He definitely has this personality where he likes to isolate and just write, but he also seems to be about community as well. That, in a nutshell, is the album.”
The artists Brewer selected for Unquoted come from a variety of styles and backgrounds. One song, “The Rose of Saratoga,” told from the perspective of a horse who dreams of a certain female rider, is featured on three of the album’s tracks, each quite different: one with McKenna on bagpipes, one with Michael Holt of Truro on piano and vocals, and, finally, one with John Thomas of Provincetown on piano.
Esperanza says that Brewer gave everyone a lot of freedom of interpret as they wished: “I think he wanted each song to resonate with the artist who’d perform it.”
Despite the eclectic mix of performances, Brewer’s lyrics give the album a unified voice, which is poetic and often funny. The range of emotions on Unquoted is reminiscent of the songs of Prine, which inspire both laughter and tears. “Provincetown,” which Brewer sings himself, is a cheerful journey through the town’s day and nighttime attractions. He also sings the lead on “Leola,” which is somber in a cowboy way. “Lonesome is the valley of my heart” is the first line.
The cowboy lyrics aren’t an act. “That was like this adventure I went on,” Brewer says. “I found a job — this was like two years out of college — at this ranch in South Dakota. It was this guy’s, Leroy, who was selling his herd and he just needed people to get it ready. I don’t know if you remember that preacher who was preaching the end of the world in 2012? Well, Leroy was really on board with that. I was like, ‘I don’t think the world’s gonna end, Leroy.’ He was like, ‘It’s gonna end — you’ll see.’ The rapture. He was a totally normal dude other than that.”
In the song, the Leroy character is called “the preacher with the gun.” The complicated part of songwriting, says Brewer, is finding the right words to access the emotion of an experience. He compares it to woodworking — both activities are like solving a puzzle or putting the right pieces in the right spots until you have a finished, useful object.
Unquoted, which came out in January, is Brewer’s first album to be launched on streaming services, such as Spotify. On Sunday, Sept. 6, he’ll be streaming a live concert of its songs on ptownmusic.com. Much of the album’s large cast of musicians will be there.
Outer Cape Calendar
Four Memorial Trees
Last week, Margaret Murphy and Trees Provincetown, with the help of Ken MacPhee of Bartlett Tree Experts, planted a paperbark maple at the Provincetown Theater in honor of playwright Terrence McNally, who received an award here last year and died of Covid-19 in March. Trees Provincetown also planted three black tupelo trees in the B-Street Garden. One of those trees was funded by a seasonal resident in memory of his brother, who died at a young age, and the other two are still available as memorials to a loved one. Interested donors should email [email protected].
Crisis Outreach
The Nauset Fellowship Unitarian Universalist in Eastham is presenting a virtual talk via Zoom, “Facing the Immediate Future,” with Larry Marsland, CEO of Lower Cape Outreach Council, about pressing needs and emerging trends and the emergency assistance of food, clothing, and financial support that the council provides, on Sunday, May 17, at 10 a.m. Advance registration for this free event is required; email [email protected] for the necessary link.
Payomet Online
Among the virtual treats offered by the Payomet Performing Arts Center online are two videos by local actor Dennis Cunningham and two Tiny Tent events: a pay-what-you-can stretch and flexibility class with Cirque by the Sea aerialist Gabrielle “Teddy” Ment on Tuesday, May 19, at 6 p.m., and a free live concert by folk singer-songwriter Darren Wotherspoon on Wednesday, May 20, at 6 p.m. Even though the Tiny Tent is virtual, participation is limited and tickets are required at payomet.org.
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
Salon Mario Russo in Boston may be temporarily closed, but it’s offering free DIY tutorial videos from its stylists on how to color your hair, fix roots, and more while sheltering at home. Mario himself is a Provincetown celeb: drop in on his salon’s Facebook or Instagram pages.
Tailor-made
A budding nonprofit on the Outer Cape called Masked Makers, started by Tess Lyone, is looking for people to donate their time, sewing skills, and fabric to make the required face masks for the community during the coronavirus epidemic. If you want to help, go to maskedmakers.org and join the email list.
Keep It Short
Four editions of the Animation Show of Shows, featuring 56 of the world’s best short films, will become available on Vimeo through Wellfleet Preservation Hall on May 15 for $9.99. The ticket link and promo code are available at wellfleetpreservationhall.org. Also at the Hall: The Feed Your Love Open Mic virtual edition, on Wednesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. Performers and listeners can join the fun via Zoom. Email host John Beardsley ahead of time at [email protected] to sign up; link to Zoom 15 minutes ahead of time. Performers should email Bert Jackson for tips on setting up at [email protected].
Time Release
During the Broto conference this weekend, check out the free virtual art show of climate-savvy work, “Time Sensitive,” including imagery by Wellfleetians Daniel Ranalli and Sarah Riley, at broto.eco (click on “conference” and then “art show”) or go directly to broto.eco/time-sensitive-art-show/. Riley’s Wellfleet Apparitions is a 12-foot-tall series of layered drawings and photos reworked in Photoshop and printed on vinyl.
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