If you were a mad scientist and you were trying to formulate a musical performer that mixed a singer-song writer style with a melodic Broadway sound, Serenity Fisher may be your wonderful creation.
Serenity opened up the Thursday Night of Cincinnati’s Midpoint Music Festival with a unique sound like no other performer in the festival. She mixes a pop sound, introspective lyrics, and a positive tone to make sharp music that catches you off guard with its charm, while still expressing the artist’s dreams.
If you were a mad scientist and you were trying to formulate a musical performer that mixed a singer-song writer style with a melodic Broadway sound, Serenity Fisher may be your wonderful creation.
Serenity opened up the Thursday Night of Cincinnati’s Midpoint Music Festival with a unique sound like no other performer in the festival. She mixes a pop sound, introspective lyrics, and a positive tone to make sharp music that catches you off guard with its charm, while still expressing the artist’s dreams.
Using mostly electric piano, Serenity delighted the strong crowd at the Coffee Emporium Stage. She held the focus of the crowd with both her stunning voice, but with her between song banter. It was light, funny, and showed her realness with the hint of nervousness coming through every other sentence. Her skills on the piano are very strong and she even added to the levity by offering up piano lessons, something she’s actually does on the side.
Her CD Watercolor Harmonies, available for download at her MySpace page (www.myspace.com/serenityfisher), was the focus of the material for her performance, but new material peppered the set list. “The Caterpillar Song” is a highlight form the CD and has a melancholy tone but the contrasts are upbeat and have a theatrical feel. The studio version has a backing guitar and drums which creates a different sound than her solo performance, which just uses the piano. She sometimes is accompanied by a guitarist, but for this performance was all alone.
“Porcupine Spikes” is a newer song and is a delight. Fun, catchy, and I will say outright cute, but it still has sharp lyrics. It is a song that when performed live is nothing but piano and her voice, but feels fuller than if it had a full backing group behind it.
“Home” is an example of her often autobiographical inspirations, as she recently returned to her home town of Cincinnati, having been living in the San Francisco area for several years. Some of the lyrics border on the fantastical, but as metaphor and expression, not as a tool. She appears to like to have a style that never takes itself too seriously, but understands that life is not simple.
Serenity appeared Saturday night in a special Halloween show at Arnold’s Bar and Grille in downtown Cincinnati and plays again on November 13th at the Clifton Performance Theatre (404 Ludlow Ave,) from 7:30-8:30pm. Tickets are $8.00.