Celia Slattery - Our Life Together

Website:

www.celiaslattery.com/performer

Music Style:

Adult Contemporary

City:

Somerville

 

State:

MA

 

Country:

USA

Band Description

Celia Slattery is a Boston-based singer whose original music weaves elements of jazz, pop and folk/rock with perceptive lyrics. "A wonderfully crafted album highlighted by soul-stirring performances musically and vocally." Metronome Magazine.


Additional Band Websites

Artist Biography

Celia Slattery is a jazz and pop singer and award-winning songwriter who has entertained audiences from Boston to Bangkok.

 

Celia’s passion for music and theater performance began as a small child growing up in Santa Barbara, California, where she performed as the piano-playing Amaryllis in The Music Man.

When Celia’s family moved to Washington, DC, she was introduced to folk music and to progressive politics.  She picked up the guitar, imitating the topical singer-songwriters of the day, and becoming the leader of a group of rebellious teens at the Catholic Girls School she attended. 

 

A single mother at age 19, Celia kept her dream alive, putting herself through theatre school and piecing together a career in performing arts, as well as doing all kinds of odd jobs just to get by.

While living in New Hampshire, Celia debuted as a solo acoustic act at the legendary Folkway in Peterborough, NH.  For several years she toured the New England folk circuit, singing original songs at coffeehouses and clubs such as Club Passim in Cambridge, Mass and the Iron Horse in Northampton, while perfecting her covers singing over crowds in noisy bars. 

 

After returning to Boston, Celia expanded her musical horizons with studies in Jazz at New England Conservatory, and she began playing with some of the best musicians in Boston.  The bars got a little better, including a seven-month stint in 1991 singing at the Bamboo Bar in the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, often cited as world's #1 hotel.  (The experience is immortalized in the song, “Bamboo Bar” on her Cast of Characters album.)

 

With help from nationally-known director Bill Castellino, Celia created and toured a one-woman musical show, Moving Target, a classic tale about growing up amidst the turbulent political and social changes of the 60’s and 70’s.  Moving Target toured from 1997 - 2004 at venues such as the Montreal Fringe Festival, the New England Theater Conference, and Jimmy Tingle’s Off-Broadway Theatre. 

 

Celia has released three CDs: Movin’ On (2001), featuring music from Moving Target, Cast of Characters (2008), released with a concert at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, and Our Life Together (2014) an all-original EP, which she also arranged and produced. The album includes musical accompaniment by an all-star band including legendary drummer Dave Mattacks.  Mattacks was a member of the popular 70's folk-rock group Fairport Convention, and his solo career includes performances and recordings with many greats in the rock and pop world, from Paul McCartney to Roseanne Cash. 

Press Release

 

 

Boston-based singer Celia Slattery released her third recording, Our Life Together, in June 2014 with a concert at Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge.  "A wonderfully crafted album that’s highlighted by soul-stirring performances both musically and vocally" (Metronome Magazine), the five-song EP was written, arranged and produced by Slattery, backed by a world-class band.

 

Celia's original music weaves elements of jazz and folk-rock with perceptive lyrics inspired by artists like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. The themes of her original songs range from enduring relationships (Our Life Together) to staying relevant in middle age (Washed-up Middle-Aged Wise Woman Blues). No Return is a song about the difficulty of creating change that was inspired by Hurricane Sandy and the Newtown shooting, while Another Sleepless Night speaks to the stresses of being a woman in the "sandwich generation." Crocus is a song about the death of a loved one.

 

Celia's back-up band for the project includes Jane Potter, piano; Thomas Hebb, bass; Steve Kirby, guitar; and well-known drummer Dave Mattacks.  Mattacks, a member of the popular 70's folk-rock band Fairport Convention, has had a solo career which includes performing and recording for legends from Paul McCartney and George Harrison, to Cat Stevens and Roseanne Cash.

 

The album was engineered by Huck Bennert whose notable projects have included Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters, Chip Taylor, Lori McKenna, Myanna, and many more.