Sacramento Profiles

Singer Carly DuHain does it her way

2011-09-16T18:10:54Z

Carly DuHain refers to herself as an underground musician.

No representation, no management, just a singer songwriter trying to make it in Sacramento on her own volition.

Aiming to be successful in a town loaded with musicians and bands, DuHain has her own approach. “I do the opposite of everyone else,” she says. “I don’t really follow self-promotion trends.”

She outlines everything a musician needs to do to be known, working every local media angle, playing every venue, never stopping. “I’d just rather take my time and do it organically.”

While her gut-instinct style rarely leads her to play the same venue back-to-back, DuHain has two upcoming shows at the Fox & Goose. Saturday, Sept. 17, she will play with the Carly DuHain Band followed by Honyock and the Isaac Howl. On Oct. 7 she will sing with Be Brave Bold Robot.

“I love that venue,” she says of the Fox & Goose and has played there countless times since starting out at open-mike night nearly 10 years ago.

As a musician who wrote her first song at age 5 and taught herself chords on her dad’s classical guitar at 12, DuHain has been performing since she was 18. She plays coffee houses, bars and small venues throughout California, Washington and Oregon, making extra cash selling CDs. A stint on the East Coast gave her the chance to play in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

At 29, DuHain has developed a style combining strength and vulnerability in equal measures. She says she plays original music that “evokes intense emotions through the most basic words possible.”

DuHain translates emotion through a knack for songwriting and a knockout voice that mixes whiskey, smoke and heartbreak while never letting go of the delicacy of love and desire.

It’s a voice that holds it’s own in a crowded rowdy venue like the Bicycle Kitchen on Second Saturday.

DuHain thinks a sense of urgency is essential in her work. “If there’s no sense of urgency, then it’s just small talk and small change.”

Self described as “raw and down to earth,” she projects humanity and packs a sound that inspired an online reviewer to proclaim her “not your average female artist. She’s got a bite, a beer and a good story.”

“I’m a little rough around the edges,” DuHain says. “I love to raise a pint glass. I love delicious whiskey. I can be vulgar and talk like a sailor.”

In a town where being a musician can seem a like a “popularity contest,” DuHain pulls no punches. She is herself.

“I think it’s good to hear someone be raw and honest,” she says. “People can identify with that; it can be a relief.”

DuHain’s dream is to play larger festivals and ultimately be able to work full-time as a musician. She hopes to play the South by Southwest festival in Austin next year. For now, she works during the day as a dog groomer and savors Sacramento’s music scene, finding time to sing backup in the Be Brave Bold Robot in addition to her own performances.

She is at work on her second CD, a follow-up to the 2009 “Rainstation.” Recording in the Sacramento studio of fellow musician Justin Farren, DuHain says she can envision exactly how she wants the music to sound. She recorded the scratch track for her new 12-song CD in an hour.

“Efficiency is important when you’re doing something seriously.”

She describes the scratch track as the “blueprint” for the recording, which will feature her full band: Catie Turner on Viola, Jessica Williams on piano, Tony Ledesma on drums and Richard Williams on bass, trumpet and ukulele.

It’s the same band you can catch at Fox & Goose Saturday night.

“I’ve wanted a rock band since I could breathe,” DuHain says. “These musicians are incredibly smart and talented. I feel like they can read my mind.”

Dinners with Augie is true community theater

2011-08-04T23:30:15Z

If you go see Dinners with Augie in its final weekend at Geery Theater in Midtown, you can anticipate a professional production in an intimate setting, three convincing actors and a sweet story. In addition to the play itself, you can experience the pride and energy of a locally written world premier where the playwright collects tickets and the cast greets the audience as they exit the 49-seat theater.

Dinners With Augie is billed as “a play in several scenes and several dimensions,” and it delivers on this premise. It’s a play about life, death and the simple and beautiful things one might remember before drifting off into the big sleep: The way light filters through a glass of port, the dense taste of real cheesecake, a russet-colored Irish terrier with one floppy ear. Without giving away too much of the story, it’s also a play about transformation, lucidity and dreams and the thin line in between.

“The play is a tribute to the idea of an emotional bond with another species,” says playwright Scott Charles. Inspired by Charles’ Irish terrier, Augie, the play on one level explores the role dogs play in the domesticated world. Even though Dinners with Augie is a lean and direct production, it successfully explores several essential themes including the big daddy topic that many people don’t want to talk about -- mortality.

“This play is about relationships and transformations, and I hope it helps people get their minds around mortality,” Charles says.

The small and talented cast includes Cameron Johnson as Dr. Tom Mauro. Johnson brings an uncanny vitality to his role and handles a tricky and pivotal scene with complete conviction. Jeff Webster plays Arthur Valentine with delicate amiability and ingrained charm that is a considerable part of what makes the play work. April Maylene matches the moxie of her fellow actors as nurse Dani. Leo McElroy directs.

“Eighty percent of the success of a play is the cast, crew and director,” says Charles. Charles worked with Sacramento Playwrights Collaborative to “workshop” the play, where actors stage a reading. After receiving positive feedback, he decided to produce it himself, renting the Geery for the four-week run.

Ultimately, Dinners with Augie is about community theater and the intangible value of a thoughtful production in a small theater where every seat is a great seat. Dinners with Augie is about a local playwright putting his mind to producing a play for the first time. It’s a tribute to good actors who put their hearts into a performance without earning a dime. Dinners with Augie is about people doing what they love and not worrying what they get in return.

Dinners with Augie shows at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 5 and Saturday, Aug. 6 at The Geery Theater, 2130 L Street, Sacramento. Tickets are $10. www.dinnerswithaugie.com

Long awaited Fremont Park sculptures installed

2011-05-13T17:46:35Z

Fremont Park in Midtown is now home to two colorful and richly detailed sculptures, which were recently installed as part of Sacramento’s Art in Public Places program.

Created by local artist Stephanie Taylor, the sculptures chronicle the explorations of John C. Fremont and the flow of time and events between the 19th century and today. Shaped like giant vessels and embellished with intricate ceramic elements, the sculptures have been in the works since 2007 and were finished last summer. However, technicalities regarding placement delayed installation until this spring.

The location of the vessels became a topic of intrigue and Fremont Park Neighborhood Association, CADA and the city parks department all collaborated on where and how to place the sculptures in the park between 15th and 16th and P and Q Streets.

“It was a collaborative process driven by a desire to create a place for people to gather,” said Shelly Willis, director of SMAC’s Art in Public Places program. “People were excited by the possibility of the art to transform the park.”

Ultimately, a desired raised performance area that would have been flanked by the sculptures was not feasible. The solution to place the vessels on small concrete pedestals toward the interior of the park is functional and puts the art clearly in public view.

Artist Stephanie Taylor has produced 17 murals and sculptures in Sacramento as well as some 350 works nationally and internationally, including several commissions for Disney. Her work includes the larger-than-life portrait of Jack London on the outside wall of Beers Books on S Street and the lively geometric mural on Iron Steaks restaurant on Broadway.

“It’s wonderful to see the vessels outside, bathed in blue sky and sunshine,” Taylor said.