"Heather Maloney is a gem of New England's music
scene, with a dazzling voice she's not afraid to flaunt on her latest
album Time and Pocket Change." The Wire- Portsmouth NH
"I have not been this excited about a new act in a very long time." (TMax, Noise Magazine, Boston MA)
Heather Maloney had one of her first public shows at the Yellow Sofa open mic in Northampton in September of 2009.
She was nervous and timid and had to be prodded onto the stage. Fast forward to July of 2011. She walked out onto the stage at the Calvin Theater in
front of 1,500 fans of the Grammy Award winning artist Jonny Lang, and
brought them to their feet in applause. Jonny immediately asked her to
open three more shows and called her “an extremely talented songwriter
and incredibly great singer.”
Heather has fallen in love with
performing, having played over 225 shows in 20 states in 20 months,
sharing the stage with such celebrated acts as Jonny Lang, Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriquez, Mike and Ruthy, Vance Gilbert, Dala, David Wax
Museum, Devil Makes Three, Caravan of Thieves, Jeffrey Gaines, Jill
Sobule, Meg Hutchinson, Cliff Eberhardt and many others.
Bob Dylan wrote in his autobiography that when he was pounding it
out in the "pass the can" clubs of NYC, he knew that he would make it
because he was different; he had something to say, he was presenting a
message, when everybody else around was singing the same song,
presenting themselves. The consistent feedback from those who have seen
Heather perform is this: she has a message, an intention and the chops
to back it up.
Heather's 2011 release and her second full length album Time and Pocket Change is both deep and playful; the Portland Phoenix
dubbed it "Richly orchestrated post-coffee shop pop held together by
pipes and lyrics well beyond her years." WUMB Boston Radio's Jason
Moberg says: "This album is incredible, I'm blown away." and added three
songs into their rotation. North Carolina's Encore Magazine says:
"Time & Pocket Change can easily be categorized as one of the best
of 2011 thus far." And a hometown thumbs-up comes from Northampton's
Valley Advocate: "You can hear that it comes from the soul-- none of it
reeks of contrivance, not even for a minute."
Heather is currently touring nationally in support
of Time and Pocket Change and with more than two albums worth of
new material packed in the same pocket, she'll surely find it hard to bail out on the dream. It's gratifying, as a fan and publicist, to see Heather at this early point in her career arc and just knowing she'll go the distance. I have witnessed others who went on to great acclaim and artistic heights like Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, and Patty Griffin and they all had a certain look in their eyes. They were "present" and writing real songs about the moment but also had a fix on a distant point on the horizon. Simply put, not only does Heather have the ingredients, she has the work ethic and she seems to have found her calling.
Billy Keane opens the show starting at 7PM. Born in Australia, raised in Connecticut, jaded in Brooklyn, schooled in
Seattle and weathered in Louisiana, Billy Keane came to The Berkshires
of Massachusetts in the summer of 2009 to record his debut solo album,
The Pine Street Sessions. He formed his band The Misdemeanor Outlaws in
2010 and released a four song self-titled EP. He and his band toured in
2011 and are set to release their first full-length album titled Going
Home in the spring of 2012. Billy writes with honesty and experience,
he performs with raw, naked emotion while wearing clothes.
Tickets for Heather Maloney at the Iron Horse Saturday, June 2nd at 7PM are available at NBO, 413-586-8686 and online at IHEG.com
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