By journalist Mrs Jones
NEWBURGH – “Scratch my pain with his fingers, sing my life with his words, kill me gently with his song, kill me gently with his song, tell my whole life with his song, kill me gently with his song…” that’s how it is that Tamy Stevens & Black Pearl finished their set at Funkin’ Fridays last Friday at the Silk Factory. Of course, the crowd danced and sang along to that popular Fugees song, “Woah, woah-oah-ah-ah-ah, uh, uh, la-la-la, la, la, la, woah, la, woah , la, la-ah-ah-ah-ah.
“You want to give people something that they’re used to… I try to… push my music in a way that’s palatable. I want people [say], ‘Oh, I know that song. Alright, cool. If she could sing that song, maybe I’d like to see what’s going on with her music too. So I kind of try to add the two together so people are…more inclined to pick up my stuff too,” said Stevens, who sings covers but has two of his own original music projects. “I released one in 2017… This one’s called ‘Black Panther’… my grandpa… was a black panther… It’s going to be re-released… later this spring. My most recent project [was] in 2020… “The In Between: Part 1” which took me about three years to make… There’s this mix of all types of music that I like, hip-hop, a little mix of R&B and drunk. So it’s just [an] the album is about love, loss, growth, and everything that happens between who you’re meant to be and where you come from.
Stevens is also working on his next project, “Song of Solomon,” which will be released later this year. He is inspired by the Bible and her husband. His band, Black Pearl, is named after his mother’s godmother who wore a black pearl up her nose and had a huge impact on her identity. His band is mostly family-run, consisting of older brother Sean Stevens who plays synth piano, younger brother Micah Stevens who plays drums, “gaming brother” Myles Mann who plays keyboard, and god brother Isaiah Hassell who plays bass guitar. . Hassell also hosted the event for his company, Gather ‘N Play (GNP).
“GNP is an event organization service. We organize events. We offer poetry slams, showcases and karaoke nights. We just entertain people. It’s really about bringing people together after the pandemic and getting people to interact with other people. So the goal of GNP is to bring everyone together and have fun again,” said Hassell, who started his company in 2019 but was impacted by the pandemic. “I was afraid to organize an event and I was afraid that people wouldn’t want to come out and find out what I had to offer. So for two good years I was shut down, it stopped me, until now.
People have definitely overcome their COVID-related fears. There was only standing room to see Tamy Stevens & Black Pearl and masks were non-existent.
“I think we can put [the COVID-19 pandemic] behind us and look to the future,” said Rich Fracasse, owner of the Silk Factory, which hosts concerts at the Silk Factory on Thursdays and Fridays. “Friday night is called Funkin’ Fridays. So we’re going to have funk, soul, R&B, Neo Soul, that kind of music, always live. You are going to see the best of the best. Thursday will sometimes be live music. Sometimes that’s not the case. The Thursdays will be called Thumpin’ Theme Thursdays. We may have a country night. Maybe we’ll have a blues night. We’re going to do St. Patrick’s Day on a Thursday night.
Fracasse plays with the Funk Junkies, a 13-piece funk band with a five-piece horn section. Guess who sang with his band? Tamy Stevens. Not only does Stevens sing, but she also plays guitar and performed at Funkin’ Fridays.
“I believe in the advancement of women, especially in music [business]. Being a guitarist, music producer, I am constantly surrounded by men. So to be able to show that women can do it too, we’re no different and we can do it competently,” said Stevens who learned to play the guitar and wants to encourage other women, especially for Women’s History Month. “I try to show women that they can do it too…I didn’t have a teacher to show me how to play, but people [are] asking me to teach them now.
