Review: THE HEARTSTRINGS PROJECT Fills Rockwood Music Hall With Feelings And Fans

The Heartstrings Project just finished their first-ever tour of the United States, playing 11 shows in 10 cities in 15 days, and their journey culminated with a return to New York City's Rockwood Music Hall in an evening of musical excellence that may have been surprising to this writer, but that wasn't surprising to the throng of fans that filled the room at Stage 2, fans who spent the night singing the songs they knew, dancing to to the ones that inspired it, and maybe even snogging a little, when appropriate. It was a feel-good, friendly, magical, mystical night at Rockwood Music Hall.

Rockwood Music Hall is a safe haven in Lower Manhattan for musicians and unpretentious people who want to watch (either) new bands or bands they know get out of their apartments and try out their new tunes. There are three stages, each one of them different, interesting, and fun, the ticket prices and drinks are all affordable, the staff is accommodating and friendly, and the crowds are the strangers you want to hang out with on a night away from your more regular circle of friends. Strangers converse and laugh, meet one another and become not-strangers, and everyone is relaxed and ready to have a good time. Rockwood Music Hall is a venue that New Yorkers should investigate (website link HERE) because it is easily accessed by the F and D trains, one block away (and there is a great churro restaurant right next door, for a perfect vegan/gluten-free late night snack). Rockwood has been the stage for the likes of Sam Primack, Jen Houston, Alicia Witt, Eleri Ward, and The Heartstrings Project (as well as their opening act, Dan Tracy), which speaks volumes about the quality of music to be found there.

And the quality of music on Sunday night was as good as it gets.

As the Heartstrings' opening act, Dan Tracy performed a four-song set of his original compositions, including the suggestively sexy "Eggs and Bacon" and the tear-inducing (for the audience and for Dan himself) "I've Been Thinkin". During their own set of original music, Heartstrings Project frontman Luke Wygodny remarked that Dan's musical performances are like an open vessel, and the poetic lyricist was absolutely on the money. Tracy's vocal abilities are bona fide beyond belief, often a surprise to an audience that has grown used to a low-key relaxed rasp, when he goes open-throated and powerful of volume, nuanced like a honeyed whisky and filled with emotion, technique, and natural skill. With his songs that float somewhere between the genres of folk and pop music, Tracy's melodies and lyrics are rich with complexities and quirkiness, pure poetry, humor and heart, and a strange amount of theatricality for a man so laid back. Factually, at the start of his fourth and final tune, "The One I Got" some of the Rockwood crowd had begun chatting, catching up with friends, and enjoying some social time. About halfway through the composition, the talking stopped. People were paying attention to Tracy's performance of his own song, a performance and song that seemed as though someone had blended together Lennon and McCartney, Supertramp, and Billy Joel, then placed the results onto the Rockwood stage. By the time Tracy completed his opus, the entire venue erupted with appreciation.

During his set, Mr. Tracy discussed the experience of touring with The Heartstrings Project and said that "the love keeps it all together." That much was certainly apparent during every minute of their ninety-minute program, one comprised almost entirely of songs of their own composition (there were two wonderful covers - one of "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell, and one of The Avett Brothers' "Murder in the City"). Each new tune fascinated and captivated. Whether the intent of the composition was to make people happy, make them think, or make them feel, The Heartstrings Project has a gift for marrying words to music - a gift enriched by ethereal vocals and otherworldly harmonies. With brothers Luke and Elias Wygodny having been harmonizing together for most of their lives (as discussed during the act) and Marina Pires joining the band (and the family, as Luke's inamorata) later, the trio has found (no, created) a sound all their own, and it is a sound that is most welcoming to the ears and to the heart. Through the combination of their vocal skills and the songs they have composed, this unique group of musical magicians manages to capture visceral and visual landscapes of life and this country, appropriate because they bill themselves as a folk & Americana group. Throughout the performance the music, the voices, and the rhythms were like breathing, like laughing, like heartbeats fast and slow. Their words, their harmonies, the structure of the sentences serving as the building blocks of their stories conjured images of trees and mountains, of rivers and sunshine, but not just the sights of America that many of us only see in books and movies and in our minds, but of the people that populate that scenery, wherever it is that we might, individually, see it. Americana is a genre of music that came from the people; it came from the country folk that made America what it was, and their sound is alive in this band. The compositions of The Heartstrings Project and the storytelling skills upon which those compositions hang harken back to simpler times, when the world was less cynical, when people were less harmful, when every day was about holding one's face up to the light and offering an outstretched hand of hope and friendship to the person beside you. This is a group of artists that should be heard and one that should be seen (the spontaneous nature of the onstage rhetoric is a major selling point in their show, especially when Luke is leading the conversation).

Highlights in an evening filled with excellence included three songs that played one right after the last - the hypnotic "Bird Song" (my personal favorite of the night, particularly due to Pires' remarkable vocals), the highly dance-able "Just a Lil Bit" (a crowd favorite), and the rather epic "Hello Truth" (my date's favorite from the show), and what a relief it was to find that all three songs are on the group's 2020 album SHADOW PEOPLE. One hopes that the songs "30" and "The Wild" will follow soon on the group's discography, as well as "Parts of Me," which gave Elias a chance to show off his own, personal, skills as singer, storyteller, and keyboardist. This is a special group of artists, one that included cellist Samuel Quiggins, whose work on the stringed instrument highly enhanced the evening, and drummer Morgan Parker, who rocked the joint all night long. Research would indicate that the core of the Heartstrings are Elias, Luke and Marina, cellist Sam, and violinist Nyssa Grant (absent at Rockwood), with the Heartstrings adding folks like Morgan, Dan, pianist Peter Spero, and even some background singers, as needed - it all just depends on the venue location and peoples' availabilities. In short: The Heartstrings Project is an artists collective singing songs about humanity, dreams, and all the things that come with being a modern-day hippie. Surprise.

From start to finish, the experience of seeing The Heartstrings Project at Rockwood Music Hall was the kind of night out that a New Yorker looking for live music in the city hopes for, from the venue vibe to the artsy air brought to the stage by the Brothers and Marina (and even Mama Wygodny for the lovefest finale "Don't Forget About Me," which Luke proudly proclaimed she helped to write). The Heartstrings are musical storytellers worth catching and, if the fates are kind to everyone, their visibility will increase, giving way to more concerts and more tours, but, hopefully, more shows right here in New York City, where they are all, every single one of them, most definitely welcome anytime.

Learn more about The Heartstrings Project on their website HERE, their Facebook page HERE, and their Instagram page HERE. Check out The Heartstrings Project and their album and singles on Spotify HERE.

Find great shows to see on all three of the stages at Rockwood Music Hall by visiting their website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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