\nA recent transplant from the San Francisco Bay Area to Asheville, Melanie Ida Chopko writes and plays her original songs on piano. \u201cMost folks put me in the category of chamber pop,\u201d she says, \u201cBut I draw from jazz, folk and classical music as well.\u201d Her most recent EP release, I Come From<\/i> came out in 2021. The six-song collection features finely-wrought, contemplative compositions with a subtly baroque character. At present, Chopko is busy working on a follow-up.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Melanie-Ida-Chopko.jpg\")
Melanie Ida Chopko<\/p><\/div>\n
Chopko says that she \u201ccreates really elaborate demos at home\u201d and is working toward eventually recording and releasing an album of 10 or more new songs. \u201cI love the process of recording, and I also love the magic of live performance,\u201d she says. The latter \u201ccreates a space in which the complex human experience has a place to be,\u201d Chopko says.<\/p>\n
Events like the Showcase provide an opportunity for togetherness, Chopko believes. \u201cWhen I was growing up, I was part of a church,\u201d she says. \u201cOn a weekly basis, I was together with big groups of people. So, if I think about, \u2018What am I here to do?\u2019 I’m here to support people, to help people feel and create an experience of transformation, telling the human story through the magic of live performance.\u201d Artists and audience alike can take part in that shared experience.<\/p>\n
Chopko\u2019s set at the Grey Eagle will include an assortment of original compositions. \u201cI’ll be playing a lot of newer songs that haven’t been recorded,\u201d she says, \u201cand then one or two from I Come From<\/i>, just so I can tell people, \u2018Hey, this exists in recorded form.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Billy Litz<\/b> Billy Litz<\/p><\/div>\n When Litz sits down to write a song, he\u2019s fishing. \u201cI’m throwing out a line, and whatever comes in is what I go with,\u201d he says. \u201cIf it turns out to be a folk song, then I know it’s going to be for Kid Billy.\u201d<\/p>\n The lyrics of Kid Billy songs reflect Litz\u2019s worldview, but by design they\u2019re universal in character. \u201cI wake up every day and try to figure out how to be a human,\u201d Litz says. \u201cThat encompasses everything, and for better or worse, I try to cram all that into the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n Collaboration is as the core of Litz\u2019s work in Hustle Souls; his Kid Billy project is a much more solitary endeavor. \u201cGoing with the flow and bringing in surprise elements is a lot of fun with music, but I much prefer spending three hours arranging a song and having it perfect in the way that I envision it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Litz is excited to be part of the showcase, and feels it represents something important. \u201cI’m appreciative of the opportunity to gather fans and creators of this music in one space,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause \u2018singer-songwriter\u2019 is a solitary genre of music, sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott Stetson<\/b> Scott Stetson<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cSome [songs] end up more on the mellow, acoustic side,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd some would still translate pretty well to an electric, full-band format.\u201d He says that when he starts writing, he doesn\u2019t put a lot of thought into which is which. \u201cI’ve learned that my songwriting got a lot better when I was just really honest about it,\u201d Stetson says. \u201cWhen I stopped caring about what \u2018sounded cool,\u2019 I found my songs got way better. If they translate [to a band setting], they do. And if they don’t, they don’t.\u201d<\/p>\n Stetson says that his songwriting process isn\u2019t structured. \u201cI don\u2019t plan,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I do, nothing comes out.\u201d Instead, he waits until he feels something growing in him that he needs to express. Sometimes those songs are about other people \u2013 real or invented \u2013 but Stetson\u2019s in there, too. \u201cParts of myself always end up coming out in the songs,\u201d he admits, \u201cconsciously or not.\u201d<\/p>\n New music from Scott Stetson is on the way; in late December, he spent a day at Arrow Sound Studios, recording his debut EP. And while he\u2019s currently working in the acoustic singer-songwriter idiom, his punk roots are still showing. \u201cI don’t write a lot of songs, but when I do, they seem to come out very fast,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like I vomit a song!\u201d<\/p>\n Showcase Co-organizer Nick McMahon<\/p><\/div>\n One-of-a-kind Event<\/b> Asheville and its environs are home to a deep bench of musical talent. Whether they\u2019re homegrown or drawn to the region to pursue their musical careers, singer-songwriters make their mark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13,30,41,44],"tags":[237,5040,5042,5041,5043],"class_list":["post-24636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana","category-chamber-pop","category-folk","category-interview","category-live-shows","tag-asheville","tag-billy-litz","tag-melanie-ida-chopko","tag-scott-stetson","tag-western-carolina-writers-showcase","cat-6-id","cat-13-id","cat-30-id","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24647,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24636\/revisions\/24647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBest known as a member of Asheville indie-pop\/soul quartet Hustle Souls, Billy Litz maintains a creatively fertile solo career as well. \u201cTrumpet and piano are where I feel at home as an instrumentalist,\u201d he says, \u201cbut my real passion is just straight-up songwriting.\u201d His Kid Billy solo project provides a means to pursue that passion. \u201cIt\u2019s the most stripped-down side of my musical [personality], where I dive deeper into Americana\/roots and lyrics-driven songwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Billy-Litz-courtesy-Billy-L.jpg\")
\nNew York-born singer-songwriter Scott Stetson got his start playing punk rock, opening for headliners like garage rock legends The Chesterfield Kings. He took a break from music for a few years while living in Charlotte, but once he landed in Asheville i n2001, Stetson got back into the scene, playing with the Dirty Badgers. These days, Stetson\u2019s original music is destined for his solo work.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Scott-Stetson-by-Scott-Stur.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Nick-McMahon-courtesy-Nick-.jpg\")
\nDuring the worst of the pandemic, the Western Carolina Writers\u2019 Showcases were put on hold. But once it was practical to do so, the series returned, focusing for safety\u2019s sake on outdoor venues. Co-organizer Nick McMahon says that the showcases \u201chave been great for the [songwriter] community. We\u2019ve been able to give artists a platform to come out and share their original material. And that was the goal from the get-go.\u201d He notes that the showcase format provides both quality and variety. \u201cYou may have seen one or two of the artists before, but [between featuring] various folks and having spontaneous collaborations every now and then, each show is something you\u2019ll probably never see again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"