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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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]
“Garden of Ghosts”, singer Sara Curtin’s ode to the home of her alma mater, Michigan, stood out on her recent full length album Michigan Lilium as a song with lyrics to really dig into. Curtin recorded a live version of the song at Big Sky Recording in Ann Arbor, MI and even brought on Phredley Brown, music director for Selena Gomez and Bruno Mars, to lend a hand. The performance was thoughtfully captured on video, showing Sara’s versatility as a leader to whatever ensemble of musicians she gathers. Catch her next on Saturday December 5th at DC9 as part of the second annual all-DC curated music festival Magnificent Intentions.
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