SPIRE LOBBY SERIES: KERRI POWERS

Presented by The Antonia and Vladimir Kulaev Cultural Heritage Fund.

This series showcases local and regional musicians in a relaxed and intimate setting. The lobby is transformed into a 70-seat showcase lounge!

With Marco Giovino.

Singer-songwriter Kerri Powers channels blues and soul with an eye-to-eye, earthy sensibility that makes for honest listening and reflection. She’s your sage girlfriend speaking from the heart and does so with a new collection of songs written from a place of grief and longing – something that speaks to us all.

With ‘Love is Why,’ Powers’ first self-penned full-length album since 2018, the New England-based artist explores the universal emotion of love and its huge influence on our decisions. In particular, she examines love in the context of holding on or letting go through human loss and grieving. The album’s original songs were written during the pandemic and after Powers lost her father, whom she calls “my best friend.”

“I wrote the songs from a place of loss and grieving and went from there,” she says. “Writing the songs was hard but a necessary part of healing. At the end of the day, all the songs were written from a place of love for humanity and the need to spread the message that love is essential.” Love is Why was recorded in February 2021 at Dagotown Recorders in Boston. Produced by drummer Marco Giovino (Robert Plant, Tom Jones, Norah Jones) and engineered by Sam Margolis.

The album includes musical luminaries Bo Ramsey, slide guitar; Luther Dickinson, slide guitar; Kelvin Holly, electric guitar; Doug Lancio, electric guitar; John Putnam, electric guitar; Regina and Anne McCrary, background vocals; Brother Paul Brown, Hammond/keyboard, Marty Ballou, bass; Charles Giordano, accordion; Asa Brosius, pedal steel; and singer-songwriter Paul Thorn on duet vocals during a transcendent cover of Gregg Allman’s “Please Call Home.”

Kerri’s critically acclaimed album Love is Why has been praised by notable music journalists Lee Zimmerman, John Apice, Bucky O’Hare, and more and has been reviewed for Americana Highways, No Depression, Blues Blast Magazine, as well as landing on several ‘Top Albums of 2023’ lists for non-comm and Americana and Blues radio. “When it Rains” stayed at the #1 spot on the Roots Radio Rock Music Charts for several weeks.