It had been quite the week. My two colleagues – who I unabashedly count as close friends – and I sat at a table for four at the Valencia Holiday Inn, dunking slices of bread into peppered olive oil as we waited for our 3 o’clock lunch to arrive. We recounted the week’s activities as we navigated the assortment of flatware, bread baskets and bottles that consumed every inch of usable space on the table.
I don’t recall exactly how the topic came up (maybe in discussing our plans for the upcoming holiday week?) but we somehow managed to end up chatting about music. Melissa – who assured us of her stellar taste in music when, earlier in the week, she joined in for a three-part acapella spin through G. Love’s Cold Beverage while we walked through Cuenca’s historic district – mentioned that a musician friend of hers was coming to Buffalo for a concert the Thursday after Christmas. Their friendship dated back to high school, when Melissa would attend coffee-house acoustic concerts in downtown Buffalo, watching her friend perform songs that would ultimately propel her to California and a life in the music industry.
Maybe every high school produces someone who ends up in the entertainment business – for my graduating class, it was Bill English of the sitcom Cavemen – and what I learned on returning home and doing some Googling was that Stacy Clark is that person when it comes to Grand Island, NY. Her music career has seen her through (and drawn inspiration from) serious illness, and has resulted in three albums on store shelves, appearances on MTV and songs featured on compilations and mainstream TV. Her music has earned her honors at festivals throughout Southern California, and reviewers from The Album Project all the way to the late absolutepunk.com offer abundant praise.
After reading a few reviews and checking out the songs posted on her MySpace page, adding Stacy’s albums to our music collection was a no-brainer. I found Unusual at CDBaby (we at daverea.com are big fans of CDBaby!) and Apples and Oranges at Amazon MP3. The albums are DRM-free (expect nothing less) and well worth the coin – the CD I burned them both to has been keeping me company in the car since last week!
Honesty practically drips from Stacy’s music, and it might be the part that attracts my ears the most. The lyrics are refreshingly authentic, spared of undecipherable metaphors and cryptic musings. She tells her stories without watering them down or dressing them up to fit the the alt-pop meme. The music follows consistently: neither settling quietly in the background behind the lyrics, nor noisily distracting, it’s a refreshing mold-breaker in every track. More than anything else, it completes the story that the lyrics begin, as a hook into the emotions that flow under each song. Jumping between minor and major keys, or from flowing sounds to abrupt staccato notes, it respects and reflects just how quickly our feelings can change as we navigate a situation or a relationship or an experience. Largely electronic and well-quantized, the salutary rhythms and bass are well-balanced by Clark’s guitar, a constant in her music since her Upstate NY beginnings.
Unfortunatey, our schedule didn’t allow Kelly and I to join Stacy for her concert at Staples Coffee House in Buffalo this past Thursday – though I’m certain it was a crowd-pleaser. I’m afraid (and I celebrate) that we might not get a second chance to see her perform in such a close setting – because given the way she’s taking on the music business, the next time she visits she might be playing a much larger venue! Regardless, we’ll be keeping an eye on her concert schedule, hoping for another opportunity to see this Grand Island success story play live.
In the mean time, Apples and Oranges and Stacy’s cozy EP Unusual (whose title track, remastered on Apples and Oranges and reminiscent of Frou Frou, is my favorite of her songs) both get a big Saturday Morning Tuneage “thumbs-up”. While I’ve yet to get my hands on it, I’m sure her 2002 album Movement will be well worth the search – and if I do locate a copy, I’ll be sure to link to the source here. Until then, happy listening!
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