We are pleased to welcome back one of our favorite performers, Cheryl Wheeler. If you listen to Cheryl’s albums you can tell that she is a gifted songwriter with a beautiful voice. If you listen to other people’s comments about her you can learn that she is a natural storyteller with a fantastic sense of humor. Lucy Wainwright Roche, a member of a very musical family who took a long detour en route to a performing career, will open the show.

Known for her comic as well as her emotionally intense songs, folk singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler was raised in Timonium, Md., and began playing the guitar and ukulele as a child. She first performed professionally at a local restaurant, but soon graduated to clubs in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas. In 1976, she moved to Rhode Island, where she became a protege of country-folk singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards, for whom she initially served as bass player. Edwards produced her first full-length album, Cheryl Wheeler, released on North Star Records in 1986. One of the songs on the album, “Addicted”, was covered by Dan Seals and became a No. 1 country hit in 1988. North Star licensed her second album, Half a Book, to the short-lived Cypress imprint of A&M Records. She then signed to the Nashville division of Capitol Records and released Circles and Arrows in 1990. Suzy Bogguss’ cover of “Aces” from that album was a Top 10 Country hit in 1992. Subsequently, Wheeler’s songs have been covered by Bette Midler, Juice Newton, Maura O’Connell, Linda Thompson and others.

In 1993, Wheeler moved to the Philo imprint of the Rounder label for Driving Home. Rounder reissued Circles and Arrows in 1994. She followed it with Mrs. Pinocci’s Guitar in 1995 and Sylvia Hotel in 1999. Following a career overview of her more introspective songs, 2003’s Different Stripe, she released Defying Gravity in 2005. — William Ruhlmann & Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide. In 2003, Cheryl graciously allowed the creation of No Previous Record, a two-disc album of songs that were never released on a commercial label. This album consisted of audience, FM, and soundboard recordings, and is restricted to members of her email list.

In 2009, Cheryl released Pointing at the Sun on her own label, Dias Music. This album includes some of the songs that appeared on No Previous Record, along with other new songs and a remake of one of her most requested songs, “Summerfly.” Fame Magazine summarizes this talented performer like this: “Cheryl Wheeler is an anomaly on the acoustic music scene. She has a rare gift for writing songs with lush melodies and lyrics of incredible beauty. On the other hand, she is a master of quick wit. Her observational humor has brought us a number of songs describing the utter ridiculousness of the world around us. And then there is the richness of her silky alto telling us what lies in the deepest recesses of her songwriter’s heart.”

Lucy Wainwright Roche grew up in Greenwich Village. She is the daughter of two performing musicians, Loudon Wainwright and Suzzy Roche (The Roches). Her childhood was spent living out of a suitcase, either on the road, with her parents or being ferried around to different relatives in her big musical clan. In a family of rebels, she proved most rebellious by completing her Master’s Degree in Education and has spent several years teaching second and third grade in New York City.

After singing backup with her brother, Rufus Wainwright, in 2005 and 2006, she decided to take some time off from the classroom to explore her life-long relationship to singing and songwriting. Described by the New York Times as having the best qualities of both her parents and a voice “clear as a bell,” Lucy is a refreshing, pure alternative to the jive pop culture. She is alarmingly straightforward and unadorned — a young singer just beginning to find her own point of view from a unique perspective.

In the past year Lucy has toured the US doing solo shows and opening for many different musicians from Dar Williams to her brother Rufus. In 2007 Lucy released her first recording, and EP entitled 8 Songs. In 2008 she released her second EP, 8 More. She says, “A person can inherit their family’s name and a person can inherit their family’s stories but experience is something everyone acquires themselves. That’s what I’m thinking about as I’m starting to perform on my own.”

It has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers, with fans of the New England songwriter relishing watching the two tussle for control of the mic. There is poet-Cheryl, writer of some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene. And there is her evil twin, comic-Cheryl, a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic. The result is a delightful contrast between poet and comic. Scott Alarik

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Sincere and raw, at times recalling Joni Mitchell and Patty Griffin, [Lucy Wainwright] Roche’s bittersweet voice leaps out; she paints an indelible image. National Public Radio’s Song of the Day