8:00pm. - $10-$20 Suggested donation for the artists.
Every first Wednesday of the month, Annette Wasilik curates and hosts this showcase of the area's finest singer/songwriters at Hank Dietle's Tavern in Rockville, which has literally risen from the ashes and it looks, sounds and feels fabulous! $10-$20 Suggested donation for the artists.
Karen Collins grew up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia in a coal mining community. where she spent a lot of time listening to country music on the radio and singing in the local Baptist Church. The echoes of those early country sounds stand out in her singing and her songwriting. Her songs are written and delivered in a traditional country style on topics ranging from love and heartbreak to modern issues such as being stuck in traffic.
Karen is lead singer with the honky tonk country band, The Backroads Band, and the Cajun/Zydeco band, Squeeze Bayou. She also sings with an acoustic country quartet The Blue Moon Cowgirls and plays solo /duo shows. In the summer she teaches vocal classes at Augusta Classic Country Music week. She has won multiple Wammies (Washington Area Music Awards) for “Country Vocalist”, “Country Duo/Group” (for the Backroads Band) and “Country Recording” for her most recent CD, “No Yodeling on the Radio.” Karen & the Backroads Band are currently working on their 3rd CD to be released late Spring.
LAURA BARON
Laura's music moves her audience with powerful stories for our times as
her voice carries them to magical places. A Montgomery County Maryland
Arts Council Grant will go towards her new album slated for a 2023 release.
With her unique blend of soulful acoustic performances, jazz-tinged world
music and infectious pop, Laura Baron is a versatile singer/songwriter. She
is the recipient of several Wammies and four Mid-Atlantic Song Contest
Gold Awards.
Website
"Her voice is evocative and expressive. She breathes life into poignant
lyrics...”-Band Camp Diaries
"Fill yourself with something divine. There is nothing to resist when it comes
to Laura Baron." -Red Carpet Living
Conor Brendan, 26, is a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter and composer/arranger in folk pop, Americana, and adjacent genres. He has been a recording artist for over a decade, with over 80 songs primarily consisting of his original music. In 2020, Conor Brendan won first prize for two songs in the Mid Atlantic Song Contest; 'Ghosts' (Adult Contemporary) and 'You're Not Alone' (Americana). He also won an Emergent seed Microgrant for a stripped down performance of unreleased song, 'Sometimes I Forget'. Conor recently signed a music licensing deal with InStyle Music to license original songs in Films, TV, and commercials.
Conor has performed at major venues such as Mauch Chunk Opera House, World Café Live, Rams Head Live, Rams Head On Stage, The 8x10, Gordon Center Theater, Metro Gallery, Mercury Lounge, Rockwood Music Hall, The Bitter End, Oregon Ridge Amphitheater, The Cabooze, and the Altamont Theater, among many others, including Boulder Theatre with Trevor Hall, Wookiefoot, Earth Guardians, and Tubby Love. Conor is also an activist and a water protector who spent a month on the front lines of Standing Rock. During this time, he performed in multiple concerts to support the Sioux Nation, solo and accompanying One Tribe and Peter Yarrow.
As a child, Brendan's first dreamed of directing films, which makes it all the more satisfying now that he is co-directing a narrative short film set to four of his original songs.
"Love & Fire is a masterpiece." ~ Tom Prasada-Rao
Annette's performances are marked by her compelling alto and moving songs that "touch you to the bone". In the tradition of the poet songwriter, with rich tones reminiscent of Linda Thompson or Natalie Merchant, she weaves a spell both startling in its intimacy and expansive in its vision. Her songwriting influences include Jane Siberry, Lucinda Williams and John Prine to mention just a few. Both down to earth and deeply atmospheric, Annette’s songs are explorations into longing, love, loss, God, home, homesickness and hope.
"I found my first guitar in an old tin wardrobe in my basement. Its bridge was broken but it was love at first sight, as if I found a buried treasure in my backyard. The room spun and everything. I glued the bridge back on and never looked back." On songwriting Annette says, "It feels like diving for pearls. I sink down and don't know what's going to happen. Usually a combination of emotion, melody and phrasing opens the way for the lyrics."
In her late teens and twenties. Annette was performing in local cafes, small venues and eventually festivals. When her daughter was small, Annette took a break from performing to attend her family and grow her healing practice. Now she is out performing again and becoming known in the DC area and nationally as a powerful songwriter and performer. Annette's debut CD, Songs from the Talking House, was awarded Contemporary Folk Recording of the Year by the Washington Area Music Association in April 2016. She also won Honorable Mention for her song Don't Look Down in the 2016 MidAtlantic Song Contest. Her January 2020 release, Love & Fire, is her first album on the Azalea City Cooperative label. On release, it landed at #6 on FAI Folk DJ chart and #1 on the NACC chart and ended up #40 for the year.
In 2019, Annette created a new concert series, Local Cream, to showcase the best local and regional songwriters and co-hosts a popular monthly songwriting circle. In the spring of 2022, her song "Almost" was a finalist in The Great American Song Contest and won "Outstanding Achievement in Songwriting" Award.