OEN KENNEDY
Oen Kennedy was weaned on West African and South Indian music, having spent his early years overseas. He has been writing songs since 1969 covering manifold subjects, especially love. Besides birds, which are a long-standing, chronic source of joy, his obsessions include tunnels (especially underwater tunnels), Bach fugues, vortices, Sequoias, Blue-black spider wasps, Vincent Van Gogh, Sea Otters, tsunamis, Mandelbrot Images, Armadillos, and perpetual motion, Oen believes that the greatest truth is compassion, but that the universe is older than truth.
Oen has a B.A. in English from Colby College, an M.A. in Expressive Therapies from Leslie College, and a national music therapy certification (CMT). He worked at the Perkins School for the Blind for 11 years, and now practices music therapy in a private practice as well as teaching extensively at local area music schools.
More than any other artist I know, Oen’'s music is his vocation in the truest sense of the word. With his miraculous spirit and joyously beautiful music, he gives voice to the subjects of his song, whether it is a young injured bird, a wolf in the wilderness, a friend in need, or the earth itself. And when he opens his mouth to sing it is as if there was something beyond him that is singing through him. He is the most efficient instrument for transmitting joy that I have ever witnessed. John Boehmer
JOHN SCHINDLER
John originally hails from Saint Louis, Missouri, just a few blocks up from the Mississippi and cut his teeth on that town’s rhythm and blues and his Okie mama’s singing. This funky start was drastically tempered early on by a nine-year stint in a Catholic seminary where silence and Gregorian Chant were his daily bread.
After leaving the brotherhood and armed only with his vow of poverty, John moved east to New England and pursued the path of an itinerant musician, playing in sundry bands and bad barrooms. It was during this time he realized that his audience could not understand Latin.
After lengthy and ill-advised retirement to conventionality, John has re-emerged with a new batch of songs, a gumbo stewed with many ingredients and always served up with his slightly skewed vision of life.
His CD, “Stardust Ballroom,” was released in January 1999.
He lives in the shadow of Mount Monadnock, Jaffrey, NH with his wife, Jane, and two cats, Godzilla and Cannonball.
Love your CD. . . very beautiful and revealing, sad and disarming, not a phony note in it. I’m inspired.
John Schindler’s songs sound breezy and playful, but are deceptively powerful, peppered with startling phrases that always ring true. This is a songwriter who has looked long and hard at life. Geoff Bartley
SUSAN LEVINE
A semi-finalist in the 2003 International Songwriting Competition of 2003 and one of three finalists in this year’s Rose Garden Coffeehouse Performing Songwriter Competition, Susan Levine brings much musical experience and talent to the Me&Thee stage. Her songs are memorable blends of folk, pop, and country sung in a very distinctive voice described by one critic as “flowing and expressive, powerful yet capable of wrapping you up with warmth and tenderness.”
Susan has been compared to Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Nanci Griffith. Several of Susan’s songs from her debut CD, “Scatter Me” are heard on WUMB-FM. Her poetic lyrics are full of heart and soul and her riveting performances cause audiences to really listen and come back for more.
Not only does this woman sing brilliantly and perform powerfully, her songs speak to and stay with her listeners. Esther Friedman, WUMB Folkwaves Magazine
Susan writes compelling songs. She writes with a sense of honesty, humor and playfulness that is just infectious, and sings in a voice that will have you begging for more. Eric Gerber, Singer-Songwriter, Kerrville, Texas
A wonderful songwriter and dynamic performer, thrilling audiences at the coffeehouses and open mics around town. Matt Smith, Music Operations Manager, Club Passim
JOHN BOEHMER
John Boehmer has lived and breathed music his entire life. Immersing himself in contemporary, classical and eclectic music, he learned to play guitar and piano while growing up in New Orleans. After moving to the Boston area, he got hooked on the acoustic music scene and began performing his songs at open mike nights in local coffeehouses. Soon thereafter he got gigs as a featured performer at a variety of venues in the area.
Fellow acoustic performer Angela Masciale says that John is “a gentle narrator whose expressive power illuminates the spiritual essence embedded in ordinary living.” One of John’s songs is included in “Features and Openers,” a compilation CD released by the Center for the Arts in Natick. John is currently working on his debut CD which is being produced by Seth Connolly, who has also worked with Lori McKenna, Billy Novak, Fred Small, and Oen Kennedy.
John Boehmer writes beautiful, powerful songs of exquisite emotional clarity and insight. This is a man who, however dark the hour, is always looking toward the light. Ellen Groves, Fishken & Groves
John Boehmer — one dark, surreal, erotic hallucination of a folksinger. Tom Driscoll
free
concert!
21 May 2004
