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| photo by Mike Settles |
I have become quite impressed with Katie Prendergast.
When I hosted my Sgt. Pepper Celebration at “Blank Space” in
Goshen on June
2, 2017 Keith Priser, my main performer, had to take a bit of a break to rest his
voice. While exploring the First Friday activities in Goshen he, and my consulting Beatles historian Ryan Clay happened upon Katie singing and
playing guitar. Ryan, taking notice of Katie's exceptional talent, prompted Keith to include her in the Sgt. Pepper Celebration by singing a couple of songs. Katie returned with Keith and Ryan and approached the stage.
When Katie strummed her guitar, and opened her mouth to sing
everyone in the room stopped talking, stopped walking, stopped eating cake,
they turned their eyes and ears toward Katie and consumed every note to which
Katie gave breath.
It was one of those very rare moments in my life that
happened upon a truly singular phenomenon that compelled my attention and
follow through.
So, I followed through. I found Katie’s mom and suggested
the opportunity of a performance featuring Katie. Patty, Katie’s mom, was
thrilled by the idea and so here we have it…
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| Logos by Sue Woznicki |
Katie will be
performing on November 18 at 7:PM at Goshen
College in room 19 of Newcomer Center
Allow me to
introduce Katie to you…
At 17 years old
she is very mature, competent, and uniquely polite. Her social and personal
grace, along with a commanding smile, sets one at ease and invites friendship.
As much as she is accomplished vocally, also she values the
craft of songwriting. When I asked her who she favors as musical artists she
mentioned Dodie Clark (check her out on YouTube), Bright Eyes, and, with a
chuckle, Taylor Swift (very early in Katie’s career). As Katie mentioned these
artists it was their songwriting that she most praised.
Katie takes
songwriting seriously and so I asked “How do you go about composing a song?”
She begins with a melody. But, to give that melody a vehicle, she
free-associates some “silly” lyric , as she puts it. After she is happy with
the melody, the chord changes and movement, she then writes a lyric befitting
that melody. As she described this process it reminded me of the story of how Paul
McCartney composed “Yesterday”, which began as “Scrambled Eggs”!
While difficult for her to summarize, in general the themes
of her lyrics speak of “being yourself”, “being trapped in adolescence” and
“rain”. She finds a gentle rain to be comforting and enabling of the creative
spirit.
When it comes to performing, she approaches the stage, the
moment of performance with a sense of excitement accompanied by its cousin
panic. That’s good for the audience…a superb performance shall always be
accomplished by the attendance of those two motivators.
Yes, she plans on
college. She has yet to make up her mind whether it will be toward a medical
career or a performing career. Perhaps she can acquire both…
This young lady, a
sense of social responsibility, takes her ukulele and voice to hospice patients
and provides musical entertainment. I was quite very impressed with her
care-giving heart!
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| photo by Patty Prendergast |
Yes, I am impressed with Katie and I’m sure you will be too.
Contact Mike Settles at cmsettles@juno.com
for tickets to her November 18, 2017 performance or for information on how to
book her for your own event.
Space is limited for the November 18 performance so get
tickets early!
