WERS 88.9 fm - artist interview: sarah blacker digs deep

By Jake Sorgen
7.15.10

"Music is very cathartic," Sarah Blacker said when she came by WERS for an on-air performance this week. She continued, "Every part of life that involves emotion in any way is generally very confusing, and music is a way to move through that." Blacker's conversational style flows very much like her music. She goes from being jovial to producing intriguing—almost meditative statements like the one above with poetic ease. Her insight and interest in the transformative power of music, which she has gained through her work as a music therapist, is always present in her lyrics. It is no surprise that she writes the lyrics to her songs before the music, nor should we be stunned that with only one released record, she already has over 400 songs in her catalogue.

Performing "Smitten" live on Tuesday, Blacker showed off her impressive dynamic range as much as her melodic reach. She moves from a breathy whisper to a commanding presence within one or two verses, and has a warm and full tone to her voice that brings the likes of Joni Mitchell—or even Blacker's personal inspiration, Ella Fitzgerald—into the Americana-tinged pop song. She picks and strums her black small-body acoustic like a painter personalizing a palette of colors; the individual sounds do not mean as much as the overall atmosphere her songs create.

Many of Blacker's songs deal at least in part with the power of writing and song to either help work through problems or to stifle vocalizing them. She attributes some of this to her work as a music therapist in Dedham, Massechusettes. "Music is very magical," she said, commenting on her work with children with autism, "someone who cannot speak or read or write can find this way to express themselves so honestly through music." When working for the Boston Medical Center she spent hours each day improvising on guitar and writing songs with children on the spot, to encourage them to express what they were feeling in that moment. This kind of work not only improved Blacker's musicality, but also developed her prolific writing style and her ability to capture even the smallest moments in song. Her manager mused that often on stage, Blacker will pick one audience member, or a general feeling amongst a crowd, and create a song about it on the spot—thus bringing her and the audience together in the moment.

Blacker performed two new songs, "Come What May" and "Not All the King's Men," off of her second album, which she is currently recording. In contrast to her 2009 debut, The Only Way Out is Through, she says the new album will be "more edgy [and] more modern. I am tapping into influences I have wanted to tap for a while and exploring the possibilities of the sound more." Sarah Blacker's music often feels like an extension of her therapeutic work, which often seems like an extension of Sarah herself. She is in touch with the power of emotion and creativity that goes beyond the songs themselves but remains a pulsating force underneath every lyric.

Related Links: Check out what Blacker had to say last time she came to WERS!