Chick Singer Night to rock The Burren in Somerville with Juli Gort Finn, Joy Reo, Natalie Bearfield, Emma Moreau

This Saturday’s Chick Singer Night event will present some of best women musicians in New England. CSN co-directors Jennifer Truesdale and Marcia Ridings-Macres have lassoed guitar goddess Juli Gort Finn, jazz vocalist Joy Reo, and youth performers Natalie Bearfield and Emma Moreau to participate. Each will perform with the Chick Singer Night band at The Burren in Somerville, Massachusetts this Saturday night, November 12. Truesdale and Macres-Ridings set their usual charity drive toward Toys For Tots.

“Our plan is to use the money raised to purchase musical instruments and other musical related toys which we will then donate to toys for tots,” Truesdale said. “The mission of CSN Boston is to support musical programs and opportunities for kids, and what better way than to give them the joy of musical toys when they’re little.” CSN presents twice a year, the fall show usually at Somerville’s The Burren Backroom. This Saturday’s line up CSN is using speaks for itself.

Juli Gort Finn has got a fairly long history working with Chick Singer Nigh. “I think the first one maybe was 2016.” she said. “I was attending Berklee College of Music and one of my instructors, Joe Muscella invited me to be a part. It was a last minute thing. That was super fun. Then, over the course of the pandemic, they had a couple of online ones, an open mic night so I was a part of that. A few months ago they asked me to be part of this one.”

Finn, who holds a BA in Guitar Performance from Berklee teaches at Berklee’s summer program. Before moving to Boston to attend Berklee, Finn had a music career in Colorado Springs and in Tacoma, Washington.

“I played in an instrumental trio in the vein of Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson. I did that for ten years,” Finn said. “We put out one album. It was released around the world. We did a west coast tour. Over the course of our ten years we got to open for Joe Satriani, Ronnie James Dio, Blue Oyster Cult, and Robin Trower.”

Finn went onto being a church music director, playing in a disco funk cover band, and a Top 40 R&B band. The guitarist feels its important to have a showcase for women artists to build a support network so they don’t feel they’re alone against the world.

“I think sometimes as musicians we end up being our own little island,” Finn said. “I have so many people that I’m connected to. We’re all musicians, but we’re all playing. I get invited to so many shows, but then I’m playing a show so I’m not able to go out and see everyone. An opportunity like this, we actually get to play together. It’s a whole showcase.

“There’ such an overwhelming amount of men compared to women in the industry,” Finn said. “I think it’s really important for us to band together and support each other, and to also do things for charities.”

“I have had some run ins with men.” Finn said. “I think it’s hard because people underestimate what I’m capable of. I do think it’s really hard to be a strong woman in the industry. Some people brand us as emotional or whatever when we’re just trying to stand up for themselves. I know that there’s a lot of discrimination. When I was 15 I was trying to be in a band. Nobody wanted me to be in their band because I was a girl. They just did not want a girl in their band, and they said it right to my face.”

Finn converted to classical guitar so she could play solo shows. Then, she realized how much she wanted to be in a band then had to find people who would play with her. “I think it’s opening up now because people realize woman can really play,” she said.

Finn sings as well as plays lead guitar. For the Chick Singer Night show she’ll be singing Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” as well as two of her own original songs, “Ghost Town” and “Let It Roll.”” Finn will be on stage for the night helping the Chick Singer Night.

“I’ll be supporting the other ladies,” Finn said.

Jazz vocalist Joy Reo is also on the bill for Chick Singer Night. A late bloomer, Reo said she was an amateur until 2014. Reo cut her teeth singing at jam sessions at the Sunday afternoon jam sessions at the now-defunct Acton Jazz Cafe in Acton, Massachusetts.

“My mentor has been Molly Flannery, one of the well known and most well respected jazz pianists in this New England region. I went to the jazz cafe just to listen and I said to the owner I want to take piano lessons.” Owner Gwen Vivian pointed to the piano player on her stage. “Right up there. Molly, she’s leading the jam right how. She’s the best piano teacher around.”

Flannery gets her piano students to sing to their own playing. Thus, Reo had an epiphany that she was a better singer than a piano player. “I evolved,” Reo said. “I stopped taking lessons after a couple of years. (Flannery) encouraged me to go to the jazz jams. I started sharpening my saw there.”

Reo had been singing publicly with a Boston nonprofit group that entertained at homeless shelters. “That’s where I got some experience with a microphone before I started taking piano with Molly. I had my first gig at the Acton Jazz Cafe in 2014. Within a year, I had gigs at The Bull Run in Shirley. Then I got a regular gig at every month at the Colonial Inn. I formed a trio there with Molly and a saxophonist named Neil Crukowski. We were there until the pandemic shut things down in March 2020.”

Reo came to be involved with this Saturday’s Chick Singer Night event through CSN co-director Marcia Ridings-Macres. Macres had seen Reo perform at the Acton Jazz Cafe, The Colonial Inn, and at the Westford Parish Center for the Arts.

“It’s a unique opportunity to showcase the female talent in this area and give us women another stage to sing on,” Reo said. “There are very few opportunities to gig in jazz, particularly. So, I’m happy to bring some jazz repertoire to the event. There are very few jazz venues left, unfortunately.”

Reo pointed to Truesdale and Macres for creating and providing showcases for women. “It’s important to us to mentor and help each other, get recognition, and take some opportunities to be on stage. There are quite a few female vocalists in jazz. Lots of jazzers who make it are male as instrumentalists.

For her upcoming appearance, Reo will perform a song titled “Mr. V” she co-wrote with Molly Flannery. “I wrote that with Molly when I was a student of hers back in 2012. The other song is “Orange Colored Sky,” popularized by Nat King Cole. “The other one I’m going to sing is ‘Save Your Love For Me.’’’

There will be some young blood at this Saturday’s Chick Singer Night event. Youth performer Natalie Bearfield lives in Westford Massachusetts, After studying chorus for four years of high school, she’s currently taking a school piano class. “I have picked up a lot of my guitar skills from my dad, who also plays guitar.”

Bearfield was discovered by one of the organizers, Marcia Macres, at a local open mic back in June. “Marcia asked for my contact info and reached out to me at the beginning of October,” Bearfield said.

Bearfield feels that having a show like this that supports female singer songwriters is important to get rid of the condoned sexism within the music industry.

“Men are often handed down opportunities a lot more than women are (this goes for most career fields),” Bearfield said. “A show like this gives women the opportunity to present themselves and their talents. It’s especially important for younger female writers such as myself who don’t have access to the same resources that people who are further into the music industry have.”

Bearfield cannot even imagine a music industry without women supporting women.

“I strongly believe that women wouldn’t be as successful in the industry if there weren’t other successful women lending a hand,” the singer-songwriter said. “Picture women like Rhianna and Lizzo who have strongly contributed to the success of black women and Jennifer Lopez who has helped Latinos have a stronger part in the industry.”

Bearfield will be playing three of her original songs at this Saturday’s Chick Singer Night event; “NYC Apartment,” “Crazy,” and “Somewhere.”

“I am performing solo on a piano for my song Somewhere,” she added.

Hailing from Poland, Maine, Emma Moreau has had private music lessons for several years, including some with Chick Singer Night co-director

“I have had private vocal lessons for around five years with two different teachers, one being Jennifer Truesdale,” Moreau said

.Moreau came to be in this fall’s Chick Singer Night show when Truesdale, who is also her aunt,

invited her to come sing her own set and then sing backup for a song in Truesdale’s set. Moreau feels it’s important to have a showcase like this for women artists.

“It’s a great way to support women and meet new women you can relate to, the singer said. “Its an amazing way to support each other and get out there in the music world in a positive way.”

Moreau cannot even imagine a world in which women did not support other women in the music industry. “I have been in multiple women’s leadership groups and when women work together with other women, it’s incredible what that can create,” she said.

Moreau is still being choosy about what to play at this weekend’s event.

“My confirmed songs are “Blackbird” by the beetles and then one of my original songs. My third song is undetermined,” she said, adding that she’ll be playing her guitar at some point in the show.

Chick Singer Night Boston – A Celebration of Women in Music! The Burren; Somerville, Massachusetts

Tickets | Chick Singer Night Boston | The Burren Backroom Series/24 Hour Concerts (showare.com)

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