Two-woman show to electrify PACE stageDate: 5/3/2010 May 3, 2010
EASTHAMPTON - Come enjoy the music of Audrey Ryan and Rachel Efron, appearing together at the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton (PACE) on May 6 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 or $6 for members.
Audrey Ryan performs solo shows with either an electric Japanese axe or a vintage Gibson acoustic - a hand-me-down of her father - a retro '80s era Casio keyboard, and an accordion.
She grew up on an island off the coast of Maine called Mount Desert Island. Her home was a very musical one: her dad played guitar and her mom sang and played piano and the organ at church.
Her dad was into the Beatles, Bob Dylan and John Fahey, but the songs he played were more of a country-western nature. Mom would play ragtime Scott Joplin tunes and sing ballads like "Blue Bayou" by Roy Orbison.
Reluctantly at first, Ryan learned to play guitar at age 10 and through middle and high school learned a lot of folk tunes to the likes of the Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell and Dylan. In college she discovered jazz and became immersed in Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock.
When she graduated college she started a band and has been performing and touring ever since. Her debut record, "Passing Thru," was released in 2004.
Her newest record, "Dishes & Pills," was released by Folkwit Records in the UK and independently in the U.S. during the fall of 2007.
To listen to a Rachel Efron song is to be led across an inner landscape at once beautiful, dangerous, serene and startling. Efron offers that rare combination of sophisticated musicianship and commanding lyricism. She possesses that most precious artistic quality of being able to honestly share herself with her listeners.
Efron is versed in classical, jazz, folk and pop music, and travels unabashedly between the soulful and sweet, saucy and swinging, by way of her alternately sincere and comically cynical portraits of life and love.
She released her debut album, "Say Goodbye," in 2006, to unbridled praise from listeners and critics alike.
Nate Seltenrich of the East Bay Express described it as "utterly laid-back piano pop that sucks the tension right out of the room. Efron makes it sound easy but there's a reason so few artists get it right."
For more information on this and other PACE events, go to www.pioneerarts.org or call 527-3700.
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