LEWISTON – Saturday, Aug. 30, the New York City Artists Showcase Tour will perform at the restaurant/cafe She Doesn’t Like Guthries. Featured will be five singer/songwriters and two members of the band The Bloodsugars with each artist performing his own original music with back-up collaboration.
The artists rotate through material as a community of performers, all playing on each others songs, and backing them up with either a keyboard, guitar, bass, cahone or tamborine. The grouping of artists was put together by The Howling Clue, an artist management company and booking agency in New York City.
Showcase musicians include Derek James, whose original pop/rock music in the vein of Jack Johnson, Tom Petty and Coldplay, has taken him around the world. Since 2004, he has been making his mark in NYC. He was a finalist in the 2005 Williamsburg Singer/Songwriter Competition and a finalist in the 2006 The New York Songwriter’s Circle Songwriting Contest. He has opened for Blues Traveler, Sugar Ray, OK Go, Jesse McCartney, Moe and Ben Kweller.
The Bloodsugars sound is a blending of indie rock and ’80s synth pop with songwriting rooted in the classics of 1960s-70s pop. Time Out NY says: “The Bloodsugars will raise yours, in a good way, with their sweet, bouncy synth-pop.
Matt Singer has a sense of tragedy and a sense of humor. Using his sixth sense for songwriting, he brings crafty lyricism and a warm sound, placing his listener around a campfire, in the middle of a city street. Incorporating social commentary and a healthy dose of silliness, he “writes protest songs that are serious without taking themselves too seriously,” according to a review in Village Broadsheet.
Jay Mankin’s songs are chockful of witty, well-worded aphorisms of adoration and consternation, optimism and foreboding. He has a rare ability to clearly communicate his subjects.
Kyle Ervin, a soulful indie pop singer originating from Kansas City, will also make the trek to Maine to perform as part of New York City Artists Showcase Tour.
The Labor Day Weekend performances will run from 7 p.m. until closing. There is no cover. Guthries is at 115 Middle St. For more information, call 376-3344 or visit myspace.com/guthriesplace.
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