1st & 3rd Wednesdays at ROOTED Cafe at 7 PM

Four songwriters take the stage, seated in a comfortable semi-circle.

This week’s Songwriters in the Round features a lineup of outstanding writers and performers. If you have attended other shows of ours, you have frequently heard young songwriters discuss the strong influence that Mark Simos’ teaching had on them. He has written songs for Alison Kraus and Ricky Skaggs but rarely performs his own stuff. Don’t miss this opportunity! We also have up-and-comer Ryan Calkins who brings his rural Massachusetts musical sensibility to audiences all around New England. Lindsay Foote has a soulful, forthright delivery that wowed them at her full band show at Club Passim. And our good friend Rene Pfister is back with his theatrical magic that alternates between zany and heart-searing.

Our songwriters this week:

Watertown-based Mark Simos is a true “songwriter’s songwriter,” renowned for his over 150 song covers—by the likes of Alison Krauss and Union Station, Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, the Infamous Stringdusters, Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes, and many others. For the past 17 years at Berklee, Mark has mentored emerging songwriters and roots artists, including Sierra Hull, Maya de Vitry, and Molly Tuttle, who recently recorded “Grass Valley,” cowritten with Mark. He’s also the lead facilitator for Berklee’s Songs for Social Change student contest, and still believes that, as Pete Seeger says, “a song can change the world.” Also an acclaimed fiddler, tunesmith, guitarist and guitar accompanist for traditional music, Mark doesn’t often surface to perform his own songs in live shows—this will be a rare sighting! https://www.devachan.com/

As a community builder, teacher and songwriter Rene Pfister has worked with kids and families for over 30 years creating original musicals. He is Co-founder director of the company Make your life a Musical, an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and Artistic Director of The Berklee Theatre Arts Collaborative (BTAC) where he combines his love of teaching and musical theater to help students around the world create. He has taught internationally in Argentina, Europe, China, India, and Africa and started the Broadway Around the World program at Berklee. Since 2018, Pfister has performed a series of his one-person shows including What I Learned From All My Ex-Boyfriends… If Anything! and What I Learned From Years of Therapy.. If Anything! Pfister is currently working on his new book “Make your life a musical” about his work creating musicals in community and “I talk to myself” a series of comic essays about life as an LGBTQ artist in these crazy times. renepfistermusic.com

Lindsay Foote writes music of the heart. Combining folk traditions, modern pop, and an Americana edge, her sound is at once familiar and fresh. The 2nd place winner of the Songwriter Serenade Competition has been featured on CBS and recognized in several national songwriting competitions. When she’s not songwriting, Lindsay spends her time rock climbing, hosting dinner parties, and trying to keep her house plants alive. www.lindsayfoote.com

Having grown up among many front-porch, back-porch, campfire, and kitchen musicians in rural Massachusetts, Ryan Calkins is no stranger to music’s ability to acknowledge the human condition and bring people together. Influenced by a long line of acoustic singer-songwriters like Townes van Zandt, Neil Young, James Taylor, Ben Harper, Ray Lamontagne, John Moreland, Lori McKenna, Tyler Childers, and Jason Isbell, his songs have been described as “poignant, heartfelt, and vulnerable.” These days Ryan is starting to share what he has created in live spaces across New England, and intends to record and publish his songs in the year ahead. https://ryancalkins.com/

A REQUEST:

Songwriters in the Round is chugging along toward our fourth year but we need your help to keep the train moving. Our performers do a vital service for our community: they bring us together in currents of emotion. They create relationships. They cure loneliness. They give us things that we desperately need in this crazy world we live in. Now I’m asking that we perform a service for them. If you know of a business who can sponsor a performance for $200, I can guarantee the four songwriters and sound engineer a base fee of $40, so they can be sure to at least afford a sandwich and an Uber ride home regardless of how much they earn in tips. I will announce the sponsoring business from the stage at the beginning and the end of the show. Also, if the business has a flyer or coupon to distribute, we will place one on every table in the Café. Please get in touch if you can help.

Hosted by Somerville singer/songwriter David Thorne Scott. Held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Donations welcome.

Part of the ROOTED Armory Café Series. Café menu is available here. Beer and wine also available!

1st & 3rd Wednesdays at ROOTED Cafe at 7 PM

Four songwriters take the stage, seated in a comfortable semi-circle. They take turns playing songs, occasionally joining in with each other on harmony vocals or guitar licks. The format encourages conversation between the writers, which gives the audience an opportunity to hear these creative people talk as if in their own living rooms. Inspired by the “guitar pulls” of the legendary Bluebird Café in Nashville.

You might hear a young up-and-coming pro, an established mid-career performer and mentor, and a cherished elder of the scene — all sharing music. The growing relationships will warm your heart and enrich your soul. Come every week as the lineup shifts and new friends are made.

Hosted by Somerville singer/songwriter David Thorne Scott. Held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Donations welcome.

Part of the ROOTED Armory Café Series. Café menu is available here. Beer and wine also available!