Lee — As a co-founder of the Sandy McKnight Songwriters Fund, musician Liv (pronounced “Leev”) Cummins hopes to give budding local songwriters a lifeline.
The group is debuting its Songwriter Series at appetito-Pizza & Gelato, 54 Main Street, Lee, on Friday, December 20, beginning at 6:30 p.m., with Tom Conklin, Tom Joyner and Dar Maloney of indie rock band The Matchstick Architects, followed by an open-microphone segment for area songwriters and musicians to share their talent. Cummins will also take the stage joined by Wanda Houston for a session. Both Cummins and Houston are members of the all-female trio The Sirens, along with Elizabeth Berliner.
The program is the first in a sequence of songwriter evenings at appetito that will resume on the first and third Fridays of the month in the new year. The events will follow the pattern of a curated, featured act first and then open-microphone time that is reserved for untested work.
Although veteran songwriters may share a new tune they are working on, Cummins said the group is excited to showcase novice writers who are just starting out, learning the craft, and building support.
After the death of her legendary music partner and husband Alexander Nicholas “Sandy” McKnight Jr. in May, she said the namesake fund was created to honor his legacy and bolster songwriters in the Berkshires region, including Connecticut and New York State. A songwriter, bass player, and producer, McKnight worked with popular artists such as Todd Rundgren, Dennis Diken of The Smithereens, and John Davidson, according to a news release. He wrote hundreds of songs, with tunes appearing in movies and television shows.
“We were collaborators in many ways, life partners as well,” Cummins said of her closeness to McKnight who passed away at age 70. The two shared three decades of marriage. “One of the lessons I’m learning is it’s all about connection and love and music—that’s what music’s about and that’s what a great song can do. I really want to be that force and carry that on,” she said.
A chance Yoga Lee studio meeting with Rebecca Clerget, who owns appetito with Gilbert Clerget as well as Triskele restaurant a few doors down, led to a friendship that included comforting Cummins, also of Lee, in her loss. Over coffee, Cummins asked Rebecca Clerget for advice on locating the Fund’s first songwriting series. The restaurateur jumped at the opportunity to help as the query jived with her and her husband’s desire to offer original live music at their eatery. “So, it was very organic,” Cummins said of the series start.
The Fund’s objective is to provide opportunities for songwriters and music artists to showcase and develop their craft as well as “to build community,” she said. Cummins is optimistic that open-microphone musicians may evolve into featured acts with a set at future Friday sessions. Workshops and songwriting events are planned to be sponsored by the Fund in 2025, as well as comedy and theater programs, with some performances mimicking the format of 1960s–1970s variety television shows “The Ed Sullivan” and “The Carol Burnett” shows.
“Sandy always had this vision of having a show that could encompass any kind of wild, crazy, one- or two-person act that we thought was great and just weird and didn’t really fit in, to support people and the work that they were doing,” Cummins said. She and McKnight performed together within the genre that included original music in their shows. “Sandy’s work was really to build these spaces for community and performing arts. That’s what we want to carry on through the Fund,” she said.
Cummins is crossing her fingers that the songwriting series will spark a trend in the Berkshires as the region is void of an avenue for new musical talent to get noticed. Although a couple of local open microphone nights exist, she said those usually are more akin to “jam sessions for instrumentalists.”
“But we’re talking about the song as a craft,” Cummins said. “It’s a different animal and you need places to try, you need to develop the craft. What is a song? What is the style? You need audiences; you need showcases which are all over Austin and Nashville. There’s nothing here.”
For Cummins, that means “listening rooms,” not the bar scene.
As for the future of the Fund, Cummins said half-jokingly, “we hope to take over the world and spread peace, love, and harmony through music in the next two years.”
On December 18, the Lee Select Board granted appetito a one-day entertainment license for the series.
The Fund is sponsored by the nonprofit Columbia Arts Team Inc. (CAT). For more information, email Cummins at livcummins@gmail.com or see Berkshire Organization for Original Music (BOOM) on Facebook.
