Heather Maloney makes triumphant return to Marblehead

Press release by Linda Werbner

[MARBLEHEAD]. On Friday, November 20 the me & thee rolls out the red carpet for Northampton’s Heather Maloney, a dazzlingly talented indie folk singer-songwriter whose voice and presence has drawn comparisons to early Joni Mitchell with the weathered soulfulness of Lucinda Williams. Opening duo, The Sea, The Sea will leave lucky listeners swooning and sighing with their hushed, close harmonies and intelligent songcraft. Heather Maloney and The Sea, The Sea are acoustic talents whose stars are on the rise and have made every writer’s Artists to Watch lists of late. Experience their music now in this intimate and up close room with its impeccable acoustics before the rest of the world catches on. Doors open at 7:30 PM for this 8:00 PM show at the me&thee coffeehouse which is located at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead at 28 Mugford Street.

Heather Maloney’s musical journey through the modern folk world has been an unlikely and somewhat unexpected one. This one-time aspiring opera singer began piano lessons in college where she also studied jazz and Indian singing, among other disparate styles. After her mother handed her a guitar in 2009, Maloney began writing songs. Soon after that, Maloney was able to leave her day job—a not-unpleasant gig at the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, MA. And soon it all began to come together. Maloney’s momentum as a performer has been a “steady, slow climb” as she happily observes.

After signing to Signature Sounds, which champions the best of modern folk and Americana, Maloney released her eponymous 2013 debut Heather Maloney, which quickly established her as a talent to contend with. But perhaps it was her 2014 EP Woodstock with Darlingside, a Massachusetts-based roots and strings quartet, which put Maloney’s name on the indie folk map. The standout of this sparkling five-song EP is Maloney’s stripped down and darkly moving interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock. Following the release of her alluring 2015 debut Making Me Break , which was masterfully produced and recorded in Nashville by Bill Reynolds of Avett Brothers fame, Maloney hit the road on an intense gallop of a tour—40 shows in 40 cities over six weeks—that has had the singer pingponging across the country from East Coast to the West. When she graces the me & thee’s stage, Maloney will be nearing the end of this mad musical sojourn. Maloney is unfazed. “I just love performing. It’s what I’m kind of thinking about when I go out with a new record. I’m so into the actual time onstage and connecting that I feel like if I went out and was like—‘What are people gonna think of this (new album)?—it would make it not as fun for me.”

With their shimmering close harmonies and sincere songs, opening duo The Sea, The Sea will enchant listeners and transport them to some place between Bakersfield and Bowling Green. Together only four years, Chuck e. Costa and Mira Stanley sound like one perfect voice at times, so beautifully do their voices complement one another. West Virginia native Mira Stanley’s DNA is stamped with music, as she practically grew up backstage watching and listening to her father, Ron Sowell, the leader of the Mountain Stage Band on NPR. Stanley went on to study musical theater and dance at the Boston Conservatory and the University of Michigan. The recipient of many songwriter awards, Chuck e. Costa was also named Connecticut State Troubadour, a sort of musical ambassador to the Nutmeg State. They will perform songs from their newly-pressed debut Love We Are Love, a collection of twelve original songs with their signature stripped down sound, tender acoustic guitar, a splash of percussion, a bit of banjo and glass harmonica here and there. “We have this belief that all songs are love songs,” Costa recently told an interviewer. “Writing, singing and sharing songs is one of the deepest forms of connection with other people that there is.”

Tickets for the performance by Heather Maloney are $18 in advance and $21 at the door. Student tickets are $10. Tickets are available online at www.meandthee.org and can be purchased in person at the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore or the Arnould Gallery in Marblehead. The Landing Restaurant at 81 Front Street, Marblehead offers a 10% discount on dinner if you show your ticket or receipt. Enjoy a meal before the show! As at all me & thee coffeehouse events, refreshments are available, including homemade pastries, coffee, and teas. The me & thee has a handicapped-accessible entrance and an accessible bathroom, is a smoke-free environment, and is easily reached by MBTA bus.

The me & thee is one of the oldest continually running acoustic coffeehouses in New England, and probably the country. It has been and will always be a volunteer, non-profit organization sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. For information and directions, call 781-631-8987 or check the website at www.meandthee.org.