Tag Archives: Sara Curtin

Sara Curtin – So Sorry

WORLD PREMIERE!

Five years ago, Hometown Sounds was damn lucky to host gifted songwriter Sara Curtin and her all-star band on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. In the intervening time, Curtin and her partner had twins (as did her longtime bandmate in The Sweater Set, Maureen Andary), the worldwide pandemic put our town’s live music scene on ice, and she responded with the #FromTheFamilyWall series, sharing a live song performance every day for 78 straight days. And then, emotionally battered by the world’s travails and her own postpartum depression, Curtin put down the guitar and didn’t pick it up for nearly a year.

March of 2022 saw the release of a new song of healing and rejuvination, Black and Blue, and even a self-shot music video back at the Family Wall. Now as 2023 dawns Curtin is back in our ears and our hearts with four songs on the ominiously-named EP Goodbye Forever, and we are honored to share with you the music video for its first single.

“So Sorry” is a feminist anthem for the daily struggle of communication and understanding and compassion, and it rocks hard thanks to her backing band of Ryan Walker from The Beanstalk Library and Brendan Polmer of Soft Punch. Polmer also filmed the music video, featuring Curtin’s aimless wandering in a wedding dress and singing in a house under construction and move in, wearing her signature black and white colors.

Curtin has a delightful history of hand-crafting unusual physical merch to support her digital music releases (organic shea butter lotion!), and this time is no exception. Head to Bandcamp now to grab the Music & Dish Towel Bundle, with towels for each song and a special edition “fuck it” towel, because who doesn’t need that. January 31st is your next chance to catch Curtin live in the songwriter-focused We Are The 9 group show at Pearl Street Warehouse.

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Podcast for January 2nd, 2019

Tony’s tweet goes big, while Paul makes a new year’s resolution.

Tracklisting:
Sir E.U. – Ultra [African​-​American Psycho]
Jason Mendelson – Twenty Steps (originally by Koshari) [Postcards from a One​-​Way Trip, Vol. 3]
Wolf the Quarrelsome – If You Only Knew [If You Only Knew / Four Chambers]
Flo Petite – Cardboard Friends [Soft Wrinkled Feelings]
Sara Curtain – Santa Fe [single]
Boat Burning – Drunken Slip [Boat Burning]

Right-click to Download

Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in Apple Podcasts, Overcast, TuneIn or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)

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Presenting The Sara Curtin Five @ Millennium Stage

Hometown Sounds continues its core mission to spread the word about awesome #DCmusic with our November Kennedy Center Millennium Stage showcase presenting The Sara Curtin Five!

It isn’t easy to pigeonhole Sara Curtin’s sound. The Washington City Paper describes her 2017 album Or So It Seemed as “a full portrait of a human being: nuanced, complex, and contradictory.” She writes honest, autobiographical songs which invite the listener to explore the human experience. Born and raised right here in Washington, DC on The Beatles, Michael Jackson, musical theater, and Joni Mitchell, the influences present in her songwriting are eclectic. AudioFemme calls her music “smart yet delicious, like a kale smoothie as yummy as a milkshake.”

Sara Curtin is a CMJ.com premiered artist and her 2015 album Michigan Lilium charted on the CMJ Top 200 charts. That Music Magazine calls her “a gifted songwriter who understands that you don’t write because you want to say something, but because you have something to say and she sure as heck says it exquisitely.” Sara made a name for herself in the folk scene with her duo The Sweater Set (with Maureen Andary), who performed across the US, UK, and Ireland, and were former Artist-In-Residence at Strathmore. Sara is also a current Artist Fellow with the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities (2014 – 2018). Brightest Young Things names her “One of D.C.’s finest.” In 2017, Curtin founded Local Woman Records.

To support the fall 2017 release of Or So It Seemed, Sara toured the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast and is thrilled to finish the year by playing such an esteemed venue as The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage presented by Hometown Sounds!

The Sara Curtin Five consists of Maureen Andary, Olivia Mancini, Brendan Polmer, and Ryan Walker – each established and highly talented artists & songwriters in their own right.

RSVP here and come to the free performance at 6 PM on Tuesday November 21st!

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Sara Curtin – Blame Time

Singer Sara Curtin focuses on the insidious passage of time, the elusive enemy of much of life, in “Blame Time”, the third single and lead-off track from her new album Or So It Seemed. Sara writes:

“This song is a reflection on the importance of female friendships and the things that keep us from maintaining them as we grow older. It’s about grudges we never intended to hold onto, and of course the biggest excuse which we let get in the way: “I’m so busy.” Like plants, bicycles, and instruments, friendships also need to be tended to. Practiced. Nurtured.”

Documentarian Beth Geglia, one of Sara’s oldest friends, made the video and cast women of various ages close to Sara to help sing the song. Come celebrate the album’s release as Curtin’s fall tour comes back home Thursday night at the Black Cat with The North Country and PNMA.

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Podcast for October 18th, 2017

Paul’s having trouble snoring, while Tony cooks up a lightning round of questions.

Tracklisting:
Ardamus – Her Lips, Her Kiss [single]
Sara Curtin – Or So It Seemed [Or So It Seemed]
Mr. Daywalker – Porcelain [Warmth]
Peyote Pilgrim – Steve McQueen [Americana Hotel]
The Southern Ocean – Stay [The Essence of Absence]
James Wolf – Refuge [That]

Right-click to Download

Or listen in SoundCloud:

Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in Apple Podcasts, Overcast, TuneIn or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)

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Sara Curtin – Wellish Home

Sara Curtin‘s angelic voice is the welcome focus of her new music video “Wellish Home”. Her clear tone and delicate enunciation draw listeners into the mysterious lyrics, searching her soft eyes for meaning. Director Brendan Polmer, in addition to drumming for Curtin’s band, has helmed music videos from local acts like Laughing Man, Mittenfields and Marian McLaughin, and here shoots Curtin singing alone in locales around Dupont Circle, including Dupont Underground and the dizzyingly long escalator to the metro station. Grab Curtin’s brnad new full length album Or So It Seemed now through her own label Local Woman Records and make plans to see her album release and tour kickoff show Thursday October 26th at the Black Cat with The North Country and PNMA.

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Sara Curtin – Call You Home (Tiny Desk Contest)

Singer Sara Curtin never disappoints in her entries for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest. Her third effort is the romantic ballad “Call You Home”, filmed at Takoma Ranch and backed by bandmates Maureen Andary from The Sweater Set and Ryan Walker of The Beanstalk Library. Look for a new album featuring this song out later this year.

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Sara Curtin – V D A Y (NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission)

It looks like Snowzilla forced stir-crazy musicians everywhere to record their submission to NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest while thoroughly snowed in a couple of weekends ago. That’s what Sara Curtin did, enlisting fiancé Brenden Chaney to film this solo version of seasonally-appropriate “V D A Y”, an old song thoroughly reworked for Curtin’s outstanding 2015 album Michigan Lilium. Curtin & her full band join with two other powerhouse DC women musicians, Lauren Calve and Marian McLaughlin, at Songbyrd in AdMo on Friday February 12th.

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Holiday Podcast for Dec. 23, 2015

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Andy Zipf of The Cowards Choir stops by to sing a Christmas song about Snoopy & The Red Baron, while Paul & Tony dish about their love of the holidays. And of course a special lineup of holiday music exclusively from DC musicians!

Tracklisting:

Andy Zipf – Christmas Bells (Snoopy’s Christmas)
The Harry Bells – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer [Holidays with the Harry Bells]
Wylder – Silver Bells [Wyld About Christmas]
Derek Evry – Hey! Ho! Let It Snow! (Live) [Hey! Ho! Let It Snow! single]
Soft Punch – Get Your Shit Together For The Holidays [Survive Vol. 1: The Holidays]
Pilate – Drummer Boy [Drummer Boy single]
Ryan Walker & Sara Curtin – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas [Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas single]

Right-click to Download

Or listen in SoundCloud:

Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)

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Magnificent Intentions Podcast Takeover Dec. 1, 2015

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DC musicians Ryan Walker and Brian Pagels take over the Hometown Sounds Podcast to preview the upcoming 2015 edition of the Magnificent Intentions Music Festival!

Tracklisting:
Middle Distance Runner – Real World [Secret Things]
Sara Curtin – Song for Thanksgiving [single]
Title Tracks – I Don’t Need To Know
The Iris Bell – All I’ve Got To Lose [Always and Always]
The Duskwhales – I Won’t Be Your Sun [The Duskwhales]
Louis Weeks & Noah Berman – radius ii [arc | radius | curtain]

Right-click to Download

Or listen in SoundCloud:

Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)

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