Katie Dahl, Anne Heaton, Carmen Nickerson

media release: Three lovely songwriters in the round- "There’s sure to be laughter and maybe a few good tears!"

KATIE DAHL is both a songwriter and a playwright. That should tell you right away that she is a wordsmith–her insightful lyrics touch people’s hearts and minds.  Her latest album Seven Stones, is a great addition to her discography. Once you hear her songs, you can understand why Dar Williams said of her: “Katie Dahl’s songs aren’t just melodies and words, they’re journeys that are firmly grounded in a sense of place–beautiful, real landscapes that help you feel places that you may have never been before. That’s the very best kind of songwriting.”

Singer-songwriter and pianist ANNE HEATON graced the stages of New York City long before she and her husband Frank Marotta relocated to Milwaukee. She has captured audience imaginations for over fifteen years with her songs that are, by turns, “tender, barbed and spiritual” (Washington Post). She’s been featured by the New York Times Popcast, played numerous times on NPR and shared the stage with artists such as Jewel, Sarah McLachlan and jazz drummer Max Roach.

She teaches at Berklee College of Music Summer Programs and is the founder of Soul Songs School, an online songwriting program. Anne is currently earning her Master’s in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she hopes to research the outcomes of songwriting as a social emotional learning tool for teenagers. Anne lives in Milwaukee where she enjoys coffee, Lake Michigan and being a mom to two freethinking daughters.

CARMEN NICKERSON‘s true Americana heartland story begins on her family’s small farm in north central Iowa near Saint Ansgar, where she helped work the land with her parents and five older siblings. There was music all around: in church, barber-shop quartets, at school, and within her family’s evenings of gathered song and rich harmonies. The images and stories of her songs flow naturally from the truth of this life, with all its attendant pressures and expectations.

Her first full length solo album, “Room to Grow,” she co-produced with Willy Porter, and the studio band includes her long-time collaborators and bandmates Kostia Efimov on keys, John Wheeler on bass, and John Calarco on drums. Other distinguished musicians Dave Adler, Mai Bloomfield, and Stas Venglevski make notable contributions. This collection crosses a wide frontier musically from blues, jazz, alternative rock, to bluegrass and country-inflected songs.