Award-winning, and internationally renowned, out singer-songwriter SONiA is back on the road this month to promote her new double CD, “Live at the Maximal,” with a CD release concert May 20 at Phoenixville’s Steel City Coffeehouse.
When we talked to SONiA, a.k.a. Sonia Rutstein — founding member of Baltimore indie folk-rock group Disappear Fear — she had just returned from performing in Germany, where “Live at the Maximal” was recorded.
“I just really fell in love with that place,” Rutstein said about the club where her live CD was recorded. “It wasn’t my intention to make a live CD. The potential was there; they recorded all the concerts I’ve ever done there. They just do that. There will be a DVD and YouTube videos to accompany it to give people a fuller experience.”
Rutstein, who has 17 albums and many, many years of touring the world under her belt, said she’s had a substantial following in Germany since she first performed there at a festival.
“When I first came over to Germany, I played the acoustic stage at Musikmesse, which is this huge music-manufacturing conference in Frankfurt every spring,” she said. “They have these folk culture clubs throughout the country and someone connected with those clubs invited me to play them after seeing me at Musikmesse.”
Rutstein said that the career-spanning live CD gives her fans a more stripped-down experience of her songs compared to her studio albums.
“They are very different in the fact that a live experience is really created with the energy that’s in the room and my energy at that particular point in my life and what’s happening in the world,” she said about the difference between the live album and her studio albums. “All of that comes together and there’s no fixing it. In the studio, you can sculpt everything down to the millisecond. Here, it’s just turn on the volume and let it go. Very little has been done to it. It’s very raw. It’s very real and it does exemplify what a fun night with a venue concert is. Obviously I can listen to it and pick it apart but I think the essence of the songs is great in a natural setting.”
Before the CD-release show in Phoenixville and the following tour of festivals this spring and summer, Rutstein will perform a benefit concert in her hometown of Baltimore.
“It’s going to benefit Baltimore Neighborhoods Incorporated, an action group that helps finance those who are economically challenged to gain access to good representation and information in regards to where they live,” she said. “If they have an irresponsible property owner where they may live in an apartment, they can get some help with taking care of that issue.”
If the CD and the touring wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Rutstein is also overseeing the production of her first musical, “Small House, No Secrets,” which will debut this fall.
“Basically, it’s four people meeting together in a small house, but there’s a lot of secrets,” she said about the project. “That unravels and explodes as the tale unfolds. It’s my first musical and features 16 songs. It’s being produced by California Community College. It’s in pre-production and will be performed for three semesters. The first time will be the week before Thanksgiving because it has to do with Thanksgiving. It’s a Thanksgiving musical, including the pumpkin pie. It speaks to family conundrums and personal choices and homophobia. It’s got gay relationships that are very pivotal and powerful.”
Rutstein said that touring behind her new live CD and preparing for the debut of her musical means that the idea of recording new music is getting put on the backburner for the time being.
“I’m focused on the live CD and the musical right now,” she said. “The CD just came out and it’s not like I don’t sit down at the piano every day and write a little bit. I have lots of things in the works. I’m always writing, adding notes and possible lyrics here, an idea here. It’s a matter of time and focus. I have a couple of new songs that I wrote this fall that are not on the CD that I might pop into a performance. I also have a new cover that I like that is really working. I might pop that into my set. It’s different every night. I’ve always been consistently inconsistent.”
SONiA performs 8 p.m. May 20 at Steel City Coffeehouse, 203 Bridge St., Phoenixville. For more information or tickets, call 610-933-4043 or visit www.steelcitycoffeehouse.com or www.soniadisappearfear.com.