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Positively
Hopkinton
The Joy of Music
Hopkinton performer
Barbara Kessler appearing in
Framingham
by
Elizabeth Eidlitz
April 11, 2005 — What will someone who grew up on Long Island, graduated
from Cornell University in the 1980s as an
Industrial and Labor relations major, took a first job with Shell Oil
Company, and later drove a Cape Cod Ice Cream truck be doing 20 years
later?
I f
she’s Barbara Kessler, who asked herself, “how do I want to spend my
days,” she’s raising two children, pursuing her career as a
singer/songwriter/guitarist, living on Hayden Rowe with her husband, a
drummer, who has worked with her on
all her albums, and preparing for an April 30 benefit concert at Sudbury
Valley school (see
http://www.barbarakessler.com ) [2 Winch Street, Framingham
MA 01701. Tickets can be reserved by calling 781-772-1945, or by calling
the school directly at 508-877-3030. The show starts at 8PM.
Singer-songwriter Stephanie Corby is the special guest opening act.].
 Kessler
began playing guitar in 4th grade, took a few lessons, but as a teenager
would “hole up in [her] room and just try to figure out the chords to
[her] favorite songs. I played and sang in two different duos in
college, performing in the campus tavern. I never took it too seriously
or felt very much like a ‘real musician.’ It took till my late 20's to
gain any real confidence.”
Beginning her songwriting career on
the open mic circuit in and around Boston, after years of playing the
pub/club scene, Kessler got her biggest break when she was first runner
up at a Great Woods Contest.
Afterwards, Christine Lavin, a judge,
invited her to a singer-songwriter’s retreat. “I hung around with all
these great people for a week,” says Kessler, whose song "The Date”
(Making Mountains out of Molehills) was included in an album, Big
Times in a Small Town, recorded during performances during that
retreat.
Kessler has headlined major songwriter venues, where she had previously
performed someone else’s songs, and toured clubs, colleges,
coffeehouses, and festivals across the U.S.
After her first daughter was two, however, Kessler chose to perform in
and around New England instead of spending weeks on the road. She relies
on a publisher to find placements for her music on television or in
movies.
Currently, she’s working on new songs, alone and collaboratively with
other songwriters and producers, in her home studio, which is equipped
with a Digi 002 set up. PRO TOOLS software allows her to record directly
onto the computer.
“It's such a joy to be at home with my kids — my 8 year old in school
full time, and my 3 year old part-time at pre-school - and to be working
on new music, sometimes with people in distant cities! My life would
make an interesting spin on those old happy housewife appliance
commercials — there's me, a cookbook in one hand, and vacuuming between
vocal takes.
“I'm really fascinated with the art of crafting songs right now,” she
explains, “I listen to a lot of diverse stuff, from pop to oldies to
show tunes to jazz standards to Brazilian to kids music -- just
listening for what makes an interesting, moving, compelling and musical
song.
“Sometimes an idea comes as a title, or as a couple of rhymed couplets.
Sometimes lots of stream -of-conscious imagery and chords to be shaped
later.
“I’m drawn to small moments of realization, and observations. There’s
intimacy and conversation going on in my music. I hope that others find
what one fan emailed me, “It rocks and uplifts at the same time.”
Her albums with award-winning songs vary sonically. Three releases,
“Stranger To This Land,” “Notion,” and “Barbara Kessler,” are available
from
www.cdfreedom.com , where there’s a link to “Hope: Mothers Helping
Mothers,” a collection of songs honoring the parenting experience from
the Mom's point of view. Proceeds benefit Project Hope in Dorchester,
MA.
Kessler offers advice to aspiring singer/songwriters: “ Be realistic,
but do it for the joy of it . Don’t let it be a grind. That’s working
for Shell again.” |
