SAXTONS RIVER — Singer Holly Brewer will bring her compelling musical style to Main Street Arts with a performance Saturday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m.
The creator of Humanwine (winner of the 2006 Boston Music Award best new local act) and The Folks Below, Brewer and her various collaborative incarnations are gaining recognition around the globe. This past year, she traveled to 21 cities and six countries and is shortly heading out for a tour in Cuba.
“I have only met Holly Brewer twice,” said MSA Artistic Director David Stern, “and this wild woman/performer has made quite an impression. The first time I was at the Southern Vermont Idol finals, and Holly had been asked to sing a song to amuse the crowd while the judging was happening.
“Despite Holly's very striking appearance, (she has a tattoo that runs from her sternum up her neck and onto her chin and has a distinctive clothing style), I was not prepared for the power and originality of the voice that slammed into me there in the Moose Lodge in Bellows Falls.
“Holly hopped up on the little stage, playfully good humored, made some quip about how she had never karaoked one of her own songs before, and then proceeded to transport me to some mythic, tribal, haunted place I had never imagined. I have never heard a more original, intense, personal vocal expression than Holly delivered in the one song she sang.”
Stern's second encounter with Brewer's work had a similar effect.
“It was at karaoke night at Pleasant Valley Brewing in Saxtons River, where she was simply a joyous human having fun, singing cuts ranging from The Doors' 'Light My Fire' to Bruce Springsteen's [version of] 'Santa Claus is Comin' to Town.'”
Brewer is quoted in The Boston Globe as stating, “For me to be alive and to not write songs about how much I hate everything, I have to be in the country, really far away from the city.
“I have 250 newsfeeds that come in all day and I'm a huge sponge when I live in the city. Then when I come out and live in the country, my concerns are that the seven chickens aren't getting eaten by weasels and that there's gas in the tractor.”