PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR SONGWRITERS ENTERTAIN A PACKED POLLAK THEATRE
Pollak Theatre was filled on Saturday night with a crowd ready for some acoustic music from local songwriters. Songwriters by the Sea is a series of concerts hosted by musicians Joe D’Urso and Professor Joe Rapolla, Chair of the Department of Music and Theatre. The round-robin style concert brought together three local professional musicians to play with D’Urso and Rapolla, while three university students opened up for the professionals.
Natalie Zeller, Bryan Haring and Erin Holmes all received some huge applause from the audience. I sat next to some 14-year-old girls who were brought along by their parents, and they seemed a little smitten with Haring and thrilled that his music was available for free on bandcamp.com.
Of course, they weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the student openers. Connor Healey, a music major, enjoyed the Blue Hawk Records artists, stating, “The student performers were wonderful. Bryan, Erin and Natalie all did a great job, and I really enjoyed their songs.”
The three went around playing a mix of their own songs and covers. Zeller kicked off the show with her original “Bipolar” while Holmes played a sultry cover of Feelin’ Good” and Haring dedicated an original song to his girlfriend. Each played a couple songs before ending with a cover of Muse’s “Madness.”
Zeller said that Rapolla had been the one to let the students in on the fun. Zeller explained, “Professor Rapolla told Bryan, Erin and I about the idea for the show, asked us if we would be interested in it and immediately, we all jumped on it. To be able to share a stage with such great, professional performers is crazy for me being just a student but it was a really, really good experience.”
Rapolla seemed thrilled with his students’ performance. The Music and Theatre Department Chair told the audience, “I’d like to take credit for that, but that’s just natural talent and good hard work. Maybe it’s the program a little bit.”
After a short break, a DJ from 99.5 Brookdale Public Radio (who co-sponsored the event) introduced Rapolla and Joe D’Urso who brought out Marshall Crenshaw, David Johansen and Alison Moorer. Each has quite the resume. Johansen was the frontman for New York Dolls. Crenshaw was nominated for a Golden Globe for writing the titular track for “Walk Hard” in 2007. Moorer was nominated for an Academy Award for the song she wrote for “The Horse Whisperer” in 1998. The professionals brought their A game to Pollak.
The round-robin set up made the show feel less like an auditorium and more like a living room. The singers would talk and joke and bounce energy off each other. Moorer mentioned that she liked this more than playing solo. “You’re giving me a lot of ideas,” she said to Johansen.
Each musician played an acoustic guitar (except Johansen who had an accompanist playing an acoustic guitar), but often the other musicians jumped in. Rapolla had a tambourine, Johansen piped in with his harmonica and others would play their guitars to compliment an artists’ song. It didn’t seem planned, but it sounded really great. It’s easy to see why D’Urso and Rapolla have been hosting Songwriters’ circles such as this one since 2008.
It obviously held everyone’s attention because it was dead silent when each artist played, but as soon as they hit their last note, the audience made some serious noise to show their appreciation.
Audience member Lynne Fenton of Lanoka Harbor won her tickets through a contest on 105.7 The Hawk radio station. While she didn’t have any knowledge of the artists beforehand, she entered the contest “to experience it.” She ended up having a great time. Fenton said the performers were “very talented. I enjoyed it. [It was my] type of music.”
For similar events in Pollak Theatre, check out Monmouth.edu/arts.
PHOTO TAKEN from monmouth.edu
