Jodi Siegel

This is a once a month (every third Tuesday) original music showcase, that is designed as a listening room for world class songwriters, many with hit songs, long touring/recording associations with music legends ETC... to play their original music in an intimate setting. This month's songwriter's are Tracy Newman, David Plenn, Michael McNevin and yours truly, Jodi Siegel. NO COVER BUT DONATIONS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURED AND GO TO THE SONGWRITERS. Project Barley serves excellent Food (Pizza, sandwiches, salads), wine, and award winning beer. Food served till 8:30pm. No reservations so arrive early to get a table.

TRACY NEWMAN

Tracy Ann Newman is an American television producer, writer, comedian, singer/songwriter and musician. Newman is a founding member of the improvisational theater troupe The Groundlings; which was one of the main farm companies for SNL. She was a TV writer for 16 years, starting as a staff writer on Cheers. She won a Peabody Award for co-writing the groundbreaking "coming out" episode on Ellen. She was co-creator and executive producer of the sitcom According to Jim. She is also an award winning singer - songwriter, as well as an early member of folk legends, The New Christy Minstrels.

She has a new company called Run Along Home, focusing on age-appropriate lyrics for very young kids. Tracy's CDs for adults: A Place in the Sun, I just See you, and That's What Love Can Do to Your Heart. Her CD's for children: I Can Swing Forever, Shoebox Town, and Sing With Me Websites https://tracynewman.com/ https://runalonghome.com/

DAVID PLENN

If you said that singer-songwriter-guitarist David Plenn’s self-titled debut solo album took a lifetime to make, you would not be wrong. Produced by Plenn and Lloyd Moffitt and comprising 10 beautifully crafted, emotionally affecting original songs, David Plenn finds the veteran Southern California performer backed by a group of longtime colleagues who rank among the region’s best-known players: legendary singer-songwriter-arranger Van Dyke Parks (architect of the Beach Boys’ Smile), drummer Jay Bellarose (Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Aimee Mann, etc.), bassists Jenny Condos (Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, etc.) and James “Hutch” Hutchinson (Willie Nelson, B.B King, Linda Ronstadt, etc.). Several other contributors — Moffitt, vocalists Tara Austin and Llory McDonald, bassist David Jenkins, drummer David Goodstein — backed the late singer- songwriter Jerry Riopelle during Plenn’s decades-long association with the musician. The album is the soulful culmination of a musical career that began in the late ‘60s, when 16- year-old Plenn was in the band Thumper, which was signed to a deal at Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ Hollywood-based label A&M Records. Thumper disbanded after cutting a handful of singles for A&M, but Plenn went on to a professional relationship with the group’s producer, Jerry Riopelle, that endured for for more than four decades. “I was about 19,” he remembers. “Jerry said, ‘I’ve got a solo deal with Capitol Records. Would you like to play lead guitar for me?’ My first gig with him was at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, opening up for the Kinks and Fanny. I wasn’t your typical studio musician, so it was kind of a big leap for him to choose me as his guitarist.” But Riopelle liked what he heard, and, flashing a guitar style influenced by such formidable stylists as Lowell George and Duane Allman, Plenn supported the older musician in the studio and on the road through the ‘70s and ‘80s. Early in that run, the guitarist discovered that his boss had an enormous and adulatory following in a large out-of-town market. “The very first time we appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, ” Plenn says, “we were opening for David Bromberg. We started playing the intro to one of Jerry’s songs, and people started applauding. The show was in the round, and we started looking around, wondering if somebody had walked in. We were baffled. By the time we were through the set, it was obvious that they knew all these songs, and they were there to hear us. It was mind-blowing. It turned out that the program director at KDKB, which all the kids listened to, had a religious experience with Jerry’s Saving Grace album. I’d go to restaurants and hear his songs. I’d go to a party and hear a band playing one of his songs. Nobody even knew his name in L.A. There he was a celebrity.”

When Jerry Riopelle died in 2018 at the age of 77, after settling in Scottsdale, the Arizona Republic called him “Phoenix’s Elvis.” On his own, Plenn developed a career as a professional songwriter. His “Easy Driver” was a 1978 chart entry for Kenny Loggins, while “The Forecast (Calls for Pain)” — produced by another important musical mentor, writer-producer Dennis Walker — appeared on Robert Cray’s 1990 album “Midnight Stroll.” His tunes were heard on such hit TV shows as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Touched By an Angel. The songs on David Plenn are adult compositions that confront some of the sadder and messier things in life. Some are dramatic, short story-like vignettes — “What Used to Be,” “C’mon Yvonne,” “Same Planet/Different Worlds,” “Memorial Day.” Others, like “Things We Leave Behind,” inspired by his father’s wayward history, and “Tucson,” a travelogue-styled memorial

for Riopelle’s late Arizona road manager Big Bob Ladd, are deeply personal. The writer says much of the feeling in the work was informed by the deaths of his mother and Riopelle, and by his own diagnosis with cancer (now in remission). As with many another recent album, the making of David Plenn was impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: Plenn’s first session for the record with Condos and Bellarose was postponed after California governor Gavin Newsom instituted a statewide lockdown in early 2020. Co-producer Moffitt ended up recording the album piecemeal using the Apple Logic system, with the instrumentalists playing to a click track and flying in their parts. The work ended up so seamless that even an experienced studio hand like Van Dyke Parks thought it was cut face-to-face. Plenn says with a laugh, “Van Dyke heard the first track, ‘What Used to Be,’ and he said, ‘Man, that groove is so good. Could you guys all see each other?’ I said, ‘Not only were we not in the same room, we weren’t even in the same year.’ The bass and congas went on two years before the drums did.” Speaking of his objectives for his music, Plenn says, “As opposed to obscure songs, I like songs where you don’t have to work to know what I’m talking about. It has to be interesting, and it’s got to go somewhere, and it has to connect. For me, that’s the deal.” With David Plenn, the mission has been accomplished.

Michael McNevin

Michael McNevin's songs read like short stories, full of heart, humor, and a keen eye for detail. Winner of the Kerrville New-Folk award in Texas, Performing Songwriter Magazine “DIY Artist Of The Year”, 7-time grand finals "Song Of The Year" winner for West Coast Songwriters. Accomplished guitar work and seasoned vocals underscore the characters and places he comes across in his travels. He grew up in the train town of Niles, CA, in the east bay hills the San Fransisco Bay Area. He started out playing underage in East Bay bars, mixed in a six-month stint busking the streets and subways in New York and has has since logged 25 years on the U.S. songwriter circuit. He's shared hall stages with Johnny Cash & The Carter Family, Donovan, Shawn Colvin, Richie Havens, Iris Dement, Greg Brown, Christine Lavin, Robert Earl Keen, and many of others. He’s been a main-stager at Strawberry, High Sierra, Kerrville, Redwood Ramble, American River, SummerFolk in Canada, and the Philadelphia Folk Fest. He's also been a 3rd place finalist at both the Rocky Mountain Folks and Telluride Troubadour Competitions in Colorado, and was nominated Artist Of The Year by the National Academy of Songwriters. He tours as a solo act in the US and parts of Europe, and occasionally gets a band together as McNevin & The Spokes. In addition, Michael is an Etch A Sketch artist of some renown, delighting and dumbfounding audiences. Not kidding, he illustrates his songs on the little red toy. Michael has been a guest on CBS "Evening Magazine", plus segments on NBC, ABC, and dozens of cable music shows.

When he's not on the road, Michael also owns and operates the Mudpuddle Shop, in downtown Niles, a former barber shop. Now in it's 14th year, it is a 15'x15' creative hive for showcases, workshops, song swaps and jams. His Etch A Sketch drawings hang on the walls, waiting for an earthquake.

In addition to his concert tours and homegrown Mudpuddle Shop activities, Michael has written songs for indie films, and has acted in a few of them too. As a life long student of music, theater, and creative writing, Michael's artistic directions also cross into corporate creative territory. He wrote, performed, and produced a six song EP collection of original songs for Mattel's "Oregon Trail" learning software, distributed nation-wide as a Michael McNevin album perk in the software box. For Adobe Systems, Michael was hired to write and perform a 30 minute concert and comedy variety show in two months from scratch, then performed it live at the Adobe's annual Patent Awards Banquets in San Jose and Seattle. He was also commissioned by Brocade to perform and draw (on the Etch A Sketch) over a three day weekend at the annual EMC Conference in Las Vegas, one of the largest events of it's kind. While corporate creative jobs are rare, he delivers fully formed McNevin content that suits the purpose of the project, pleasing clients and audiences with the music and branding he's been hired to highlight and enhance. https://michaelmcnevin.com/

JODI SIEGEL

Jodi was born in Chicago, IL. The Home of the Blues! She eventually relocated to California and began playing and singing in countless blues, R & B, pop and original music bands throughout Orange County, San Diego and Los Angeles.

Over the years Jodi has opened for and or shared the stage with many respected musicians including: Albert King, Robben Ford, Robert Cray, J.D. Souther, David Lindley, Fred Tacket and Paul Barrere (Little Feat) and countless others. Her songs have been recorded by Maria Muldaur (“So Many Rivers To Cross,”-cowritten with Daniel Moore and “If I Were You”-cowritten with Danny Timms) Marcia Ball (“So Many Rivers To Cross.”) and Teresa James ("Come Up and See Me Sometime"-cowritten with Danny Timms) During her career, Jodi has created a heady and dynamic stew of musical influences (blues, pop, R & B, soul and jazz) into a sound and a style that make her a triple threat; songwriting, singing and guitar playing. Jodi’s fine-tuned solo performances are likened to a “one-woman” band!! Her truly original style can fill a room with explosive slide guitar, jazzy vocals and a fun, easy going rapport with her audience. She can go from funky bluesy grooves to folk, to jazz and back again with ease. She’s an old soul with a fresh sound. Her new CD, “Wild Hearts,” produced by Steve Postell (Immediate Family, David Crosby, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Iain Matthews), is filled with great songs, cool grooves, intimate, smart lyrics and some of the best of the best musicians in Los Angeles today including; Mike Finnigan (organ, piano), Hutch Hutchinson, Abe Laborial Sr., Alphonso Johnson (bass), Russ Kunkel, Michael Jerome Moore, John Ferraro, Arno Lucas (drums, percussion), Joe Sublett (Saxophone) and Maxayne Lewis and Clydene Jackson (background vocals). Each song has a soulful delivery with an undeniable down-home elegance.