- Songwriters in-the-round will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at The Ice House, 56 River St., Bethlehem.
- It will feature regional singer-songwriter favorites Regina Sayles, Christine Havrilla and Sarah Peacock.
- Tickets, at $20 general admission or $10 students, are available online or at the door.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — As a veteran singer-songwriter, Dina Hall was looking to give other similar artists a leg up in the Lehigh Valley, where she said fewer opportunities exist.
“For a long time, blues was the biggest thing in the Lehigh Valley. There was a period of time where there was a lot of indie rock,” Hall said. “There still is a punk, post-punk scene, where these people have places where these bands can go, and they have their audience.
“But what I saw was missing was the appreciation for the songwriter, and the performing songwriter.”
So Hall decided to take the matter into her own hands.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, she will offer the third in what she hopes is a continuing series of singer-songwriter in-the-round shows at The Ice House, 56 River St., Bethlehem – this one featuring Regina Sayles, Christine Havrilla and Sarah Peacock.
Tickets, at $20 ($10 students) general admission, are available online or at the door.
“There are fewer and fewer places in the Lehigh Valley for original singer-songwriters in particular to put on an actual show — a ticketed event and have people come and sit and listen and appreciate it — but also, understand sort of the process of songwriting on an artistic level."Dina Hall, organizer of Songwriters in-the-round
“There are fewer and fewer places in the Lehigh Valley for original singer-songwriters in particular to put on an actual show – a ticketed event and have people come and sit and listen and appreciate it – but also, understand sort of the process of songwriting on an artistic level,” Hall said.
“There are numerous other [songwriters in-the-round] in the Philadelphia area that I have been watching happening. And it’s just increasingly difficult for me to get to be a part of those – mostly because of distance, but also because there’s such a saturation of original artists in the Philly area.
“And I wanted to sort of not necessarily bring it back here to the Lehigh Valley, but sort of amplify it. The styles of music that are appreciated here have gone through some sort of evolution, I guess, an evolutionary process over the years.
Hall had been producing her own solo shows at The Ice House since 2012, and decided “that would be a good place to start, to bring this into a listening room in a real nice, warm atmosphere.”
The show's format
The show’s format offers three singers on stage at the same time, taking turns performing.
“We have three individual, independent artists, next to each other,” Hall said. “And I’m also on the stage with them and conducting not necessarily interviews [but] sort of directing and keeping a flow to how things are going and interjecting with questions. Maybe presenting suggestions – not necessarily a topic, but asking a question which will be a jumping-off point for the first one to start.
“And as the show goes on, we just go on down the line, and then they each probably will play six songs each. Each one can take its own organic state. Artists say whatever song that other person just played inspired them which choice to make for their next one. Or they say, you talk about songs on alternate tuning, and so this one fits now.
“And I’m up there with them sort of reading what’s happening across the room – whether it be from the audience or from each of them. … And direct it in that way, almost like a host.”
Hall has presented two earlier shows, and said “the relationships that happen on stage amaze me. Typically, they’ve never been on stage together, sometimes they don’t even know each other. So there’s a whole lot of spontaneity to that. They can ask each other questions, as well.”
Choosing the artists
This is the third show in the series. Hall said the first show was intended “to kick it off really with a bang and I knew the ones that I picked had a good local following, had a bit of a rapport with each other to start off with.”
For the second show, she said she cast a wider net, choosing artists from Philadelphia and northwestern New Jersey.
For this show, she said she first chose Philadelphia native Havrilla, who has played Bethlehem’s Godfrey Daniels, and Sayles, a Poconos resident who as a duo with Christian Porter opened for Pat Benatar and Steve Miller and was a featured act on the Melissa Etheridge Cruise.
She said Havrilla asked her to include Peacock, who was putting together a tour and was booked for a songwriters-in-the-round in New Hope, Bucks County, the next day.
“Musically, it’s gonna be fantastic,” Hall said. “And then it’s just neat to find those common threads among them.”
Hall said there was no intention to have an all-women show.
“In fact, I didn’t want it to be,” she said. “One of goals [for the series] has been to have different kinds of voices and also from different regions. Also, I wanted it to be racially diverse and also culturally diverse.
“So it’s not as easy as it sounds to check every single box, but what I knew going into this one is that it’s not just all women, and it’s not all women playing exactly the same. So I sort threw caution to the wind on this one, ‘cause it doesn’t fit my original plan at all,” she said with a laugh.
Hope to continue
Hall said she has gotten generous financial support from Martin & Co. guitar to continue the series.
“I intend to continue this,” she said. She said the funding “allows me to not be a volunteer. I had to buy some mic stands. I had to buy a nice rug to put down underneath. I’m also the sound crew.
“So as long as I can continue to get that support, I can continue the series. It’s a lot of work.”
Perhaps that’s one reason Hall does not perform in the series.
But she also said, “I don’t want it to be about me.”
“The only time that I [joined in was] the last one, in June,” she said. “A couple of the songs opened themselves up to some harmony from the entire room. So I did help in boosting that a little bit. … But I don’t ever play a song at all.”
She said she views herself as more of a maestro.
But that doesn’t mean she isn’t continuing her own career. She has a new album, “Firefly,” due out at the end of the month. It will be available on her website.
