By Rita Christopher, Courier Senior
Correspondent:
When Lauren Agnelli
met Matt Male, she told him she was a teacher–true enough at the time–but she
threw in only casual mention of the fact that she was also a Grammy-nominated
singer and songwriter.
Matt finally put all
the pieces of her story together, Lauren says, after they had been dating about
a month. She put a compact disk of her performing on his car audio player.
First, she recalls, he said the voice sounded like hers, followed almost
immediately by the recognition that it was indeed her. And, she adds, he loved
it.
Now Lauren and Matt
and their Small Town Concert Series are presenting Everybody Knows, their
second annual celebration the songs of Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard
Cohen. Cohen, who is a master of soulful folk-rock, was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame this past spring. There will be two concerts, on Oct. 17
and l8, at the Chester Meeting House. The concerts will benefit the Chester
Library.
“Leonard Cohen has
been my favorite artist since I was 14, ” says Matt.
“He’s heavy, he’s
universal,” adds Lauren, pointing out his songs have also been performed by
stars such as Carly Simon and K.D. Lang. “He’s an artist that musicians really
love.”
Performing is
nothing new for Lauren, who has toured nationally first with a punk rock band
called Nervus Rex, then with a group called the Washington Squares, as well as
with Canadian singer and song writer Dave Rave.
She recalls that the
two other members of the Washington Squares recruited her to the group with a
special promise: “They told me I could stand in the middle, just like Grace
Slick,” she laughs.
The group was nominated
for a Grammy Award in l987.
She also has
performed with an Austin-Texas based group called Bravo Comb, which she
describes as a “nuclear polka band” whose repertoire also included the torchy
songs she likes to sing. When she and Matt married in 2006, she says, she told
him they had to have Bravo Combo play at their reception.
Lauren, who grew up
in Queens, had her mother, a piano teacher, as
her first music instructor. When Lauren was 15, her mother got her a guitar,
explaining Lauren was too headstrong and she couldn’t teach her daughter the
piano. After two years of college at SUNY Purchase, Lauren headed to New York City, ultimately getting her degree later from Hunter College.
“It was the punk
rock scene, a lot was going on. I just had to be in Manhattan,” she recalls.
Matt, who grew up in
North Haven, runs all the sound the concerts.
He was a cabinet maker and antiques restorer before a change at the company he
worked for convinced him to make a change in his own career: he now works at
Chamard Vineyards in Clinton and as the
caretaker of a large property in Guilford.
After the couple
married, Lauren says the found themselves regularly entertaining musicians at
their home. The evenings were so lively, the pair dreamt of making them
performances open to the public and inquired about the possibility of using the
Chester Meeting House. So far their concerts, which have featured not only
Leonard Cohen, but also the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, and have
benefited not only the Chester Library but also the Chester Emergency Fuel Fund
and the Audubon Society.
In the beginning,
Matt says, the couple went to open mike nights to find local talent to include
in their own band the Small Town Concert Series Big House Band, as well as
other artist to perform.
“I grew up with
things like the Ed Sullivan Show,” says Lauren, referring to the Sunday night
staple in the early days of television, “and I love the idea of a variety
show.”
Now, however, both
say that performers contact them about appearing in Small Town Concert Series
shows. And some performers have more than their musical talents to offer.
Forrest Harlow, who plays the auto-harp, is also an artist whose picture of
Leonard Cohen’s face featured in a rising moon will decorates the stage during
the upcoming concerts.
While Matt oversees
the sound issues, Lauren plays the guitar, the keyboard and also sings.
“I know I have
charisma when I get out there. I love to perform,” she says.
She recalls her days
as a member of the Washington Squares, when her performances were noted not
only for the quality of her voice, compared in one review to the haunting style
of Edith Piaf, but also for her stage presence.
“I remember somebody
saying to me that people were lined up around the block to see the girl in the
crazy outfits jumping around the stage,” she says.
She still loves
costumes, and Matt says she still loves jumping around on stage. He confesses
that every once in a while someone in the band will whisper to him that on a
particular song Lauren needs to be playing the guitar.
“That way she
doesn’t move around as much,” Matt says.
Small Town Concert
Series
2nd Annual Tribute
to Leonard Cohen
Oct. 17 and 18, 7
p.m. at the Chester Meeting House
Suggested donation:
$20
For information,
call 860-526-4777 or email malematthew@comcast.net
Pictured: Songstress Lauren
Agnelli and soundman Matt Male will be both in front and behind the scenes at
their upcoming Small Town Concert Series 2nd Annual Tribute to Leonard Cohen
(whose face graces the Forrest Harlow-painted moon) next weekend at the Chester
Meeting House.
Photo by Rita
Christopher