Notes From The City: An Abundant Life

I am a firm believer that we are given gifts and talents from the time we are born that are meant to be shared with the world. Over time we can hone them and do the hard work of learning and refining our craft, but it is our own unique way of creative expression that is our starshine. I recently met a young woman who is a singer and songwriter, and when I had the opportunity to see her perform at her EP release party at Pianos on Ludlow Street in Manhattan the first thought that came into my mind was "A Star is Born." But that of course is the name of a film that has been made and remade many times over the years that includes the heartache and heartfelt love and loss that often go into the lives of people who are truly and deeply creative in their souls. By reaching deeply into that well of emotion and allowing ourselves to feel, we become our most vulnerable, and in the process we allow others to be healed and helped with our voices and art. I changed the title here to A Star Was Born because not only do I believe that we are always the stars that we are in the process of becoming, but I also fervently wish only love and light in the life of Sage Leopold. For one so young the passion and emotion run deep, and I would wish that she only always be filled with beauty and hope throughout her life.

The first time I met Sage I was at one of the impromptu events that her mother, Pamela Lubell, organizes on a fairly regular basis and that she calls PamJams. On these beautiful evenings musician friends come from all over to congregate and sing and play and have fun together with their own music and favorite cover songs from the history of rock and pop, jazz, country and blues. The room gets filled with musicians and music lovers, and as the spirit moves songs go from one to another with people nodding and swaying, dancing and singing along. It's an incredible experience to be in that room, not only for the excellence of the musicians but also because of the casually beautiful and comfortable surroundings that bring everyone into a place of enjoyable reverie. Pamela herself is like that, with a heart that welcomes beauty and life and light and love and creates them all around her, and when Sage sat down to play I knew we were in for a treat. That night she sang a cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game,"one of my favorite songs in more recent history. I'm a real stickler when it comes to music. My brother was a musician, a guitarist, singer and songwriter, and he taught me from the time I was very young that if you couldn't make a song your own while still keeping the integrity of the original you needed to leave well enough alone. Sage sang that song as if she owned it, while still staying so closely tied to the original that it was an homage of love to the beauty of it. On the night of her EP release, she sang a few gorgeous covers along with her own gorgeous creations, and when she started to sing Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot," I had the same feeling I had on that other night. Here was someone who loved and admired and respected the Artist who had created the original, and while deeply touching into the emotion and truth of the song for herself, she was able to make it her own while honoring the other.

Sage Leopold's own music is beautiful, and truly has so much depth that I would have thought it was coming from the heart and soul and mind of someone much older. She is a graduate of Manhattan's LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and Tulane University in New Orleans, but in some ways I would say she's a graduate of the school of a life filled with meaning. Her star was over her when she was born, and as she grows it can only get brighter, and continue to light up even the darkest of nights.

Sage Leopold

At Pianos

158 Ludlow Street

New York City
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