The discovery of a true music GODDESS
Date: Saturday the 21st of January, 2012.
Venue: East Brunswick Club
Goddess Grooves showcased some of the finest lesbian singer/songwriters in one night of original music and celebration. The 2012 line-up included Sam Lohs, Rosie Burgess, Emma Wall, Monique Kerry, Ruth Katerelos and Kerryn Fields. I do like a good acoustic folk, roots or blues song every now and then, but to be honest; the thought of sitting through a gig of six female singer/songwriters was not my usual idea of a great Saturday night out. To my pleasant surprise however, I did end up having a great night and even found myself sporting a few goosebumps at various points. You know the ones you get when you hear something really moving…and you’re kind of embarrassed that you got all tingly over it. Well yeah, I got some of those.
The tingles started to appear the moment Kerryn Fields stood up with guitar in hand and harmonica at the ready. At around 6 foot, she really commands the stage, demands your attention and starts distributing those damn goosebumps! I was mesmerized by her first song and at that point, I knew I had to ask her to be a guest on our radio show. She graciously agreed to sing for us live in the studio on our show “Kiss My Arts”, on Monday evening the 23rd of January, 2012.
As I arrived at the gig on Saturday night, there were eight women already on-stage and a room packed full of about sixty other women. No testosterone in sight, except for the sound guy behind the mixing desk. An interesting social situation to be in, but I felt like there was a real genuine supportive vibe in the room, and I suddenly felt admiration for these eight women on stage, who were one by one, individually bearing their souls through original song. Each artist took it in turn to stand up, adjust the mic and play, which in my previous experience, is an extremely daunting thing to have to do.
Occasionally, one of the girls would clamber over the stage, jumping on the drums to accompany her fellow musician. Spontaneous harmonies would suddenly manifest themselves in the middle of a chorus and an egg shaker would appear out of nowhere to provide a nice rhythmic accompaniment to a song. It was evident that some of the girls knew each other and had played together before, and even though much of the music had obviously been rehearsed, I did like the improvised feel of many of the songs…and the sense of camaraderie and support the girls had for each other.
Rosie Burgess was an obvious feature of the night, and her performance of “Stackhat” was quite catchy and got my foot-tapping, despite her continual forgetting of lyrics. I was pleasantly surprised by the voice of Sam Lohs (who was first cab off the rank in the evening). I was convinced she had had a previous life as a stand-up comedian, as she made witty comments throughout the gig that did actually give my sides a workout.
My only criticism is that perhaps the gig went for too long. There are only so many cycles around a group of six singer/songwriters you can take before starting to get a little fidgety, but all in all, I did have a great night and it was well worth it to discover the voice of Kerryn Fields. Check out Kerryn Fields for more information.
I give it 3.5 out of 5 kisses.
Written by Amy Bastow for the Kiss My Arts Show on Joy 94.9 – All opinions are mine. Copyright 2012.