Matt V. Cantor ’06

By all accounts the roundtable should have been over by now. The four singer-songwriters participating in the interview have been sitting for over an hour in Mather’s Senior Common Room, discussing in meticulous detail their experiences as participants in Harvard’s folk rock community. The humidity is forcing the air to an ungodly high temperature, but the conversation is showing little sign of wearing down.

Under the assumption that these four would prefer to be taking advantage of the pristine weather outside, the voice recorder is shut off to bring an axe down on the discussion. Somebody casually asks for the e-mail address of an on-campus songwriting mentor. Someone else makes an off-hand comment on his technique. And suddenly, the conversation has started up again in full force.

One of the interviewees, David A. Wax ’05, shakes his head slowly. With a knowing grin stretched across his face, he says, “You get four singer-songwriters in a room, and….”

But what this group lacks in brevity, they more than make up for in talent. Each has followed a different path to Harvard, and brings a unique perspective and set of expectations to the artistic community on campus. Matt V. Cantor ’06 picked up the guitar in fifth grade, and has since played a number of gigs at such wide-ranging venues as the Freshman Talent Show to Sanders Theatre.

Liz W. Carlisle ’06 has performed in clubs around her hometown of Missoula, Montana and has spent most of her time in Cambridge at Club Passim Open Mic Nights and managing the release of her new C.D., Half and Half.

Jamine J. Mahmoud ’04, who is also a Crimson editor, has “always wanted to be a songwriter” and in recent months has worked on organizing the Women In Color (WINC) Coffeehouse as a venue for performers.

Dudley affiliate and recent transfer student from California’s Deep Springs College, David A. Wax ’05 has been writing songs for over ten years and has released a full-length album, New Pair of Eyes.

FINDING THE VENUES

The four are clearly excited by the opportunity to dissect the singer-songwriter experience at Harvard, and they immediately dig into the first topic at hand: the quality and availability of venues.

For many rising singer-songwriters, the best opportunities to showcase their talent are not on campus, where trend-of-two-moments-ago indie rockers and decades-old a cappella groups have long embedded themselves in the top venues.

“Student singer-songwriters find very few ready-made opportunities to perform,” says Liz Carlisle, noting Arts First as well as the Harvard Music Performance Series and the WINC Coffeehouse as notable exceptions. Instead, students often seek out nearby clubs and bars more receptive to less established talents. For many, the first destination is at the corner of Church and Palmer St., inside the brick walls of Club Passim.

Carlisle seems to have a particularly ardent relationship with Passim, and her voice brims with enthusiasm when describing the weekly open mic nights hosted by the club every Tuesday.

“By now, Passim is my home away from home, a community of people who support me and make me a better musician,” says Carlisle. She slowly became familiar with the fellow artists who frequented the club, collaborating with them during performances. One of those collaborators eventually became the producer of her latest album.

However, David Wax questions the notion that Passim is the ideal venue for more experienced players, recounting the more trying experiences he’s had there over the past year.

“They’re kind of like singer-songwriter training wheels, and can be frustrating for someone from a less metropolitan area who has already been playing full-length gigs for a couple of years,” says Wax.