Marielle Kraft is a young singer/songwriter based just outside of Philadelphia in Delaware. She just released her debut EP – The Deep End – earlier this month and recently did a series of live record release parties to celebrate the EP.
Kraft made a stop for one of those record release parties at World Café Live in Philadelphia this past Friday night, and we were lucky enough to have a front row seat for the show!
Keep reading to learn more about Kraft, her music and her special night in Philadelphia!
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THE VENUE
World Café Live is an independent music venue in downtown Philadelphia. Located in the University City area, it brings in both local and national artists, as well as hosting a variety of other private and public events. The venue opened in 2004, and hosts over 500 shows per year between its upstairs and downstairs space.
If you are attending a show upstairs at World Café Live, be sure to go early for dinner. I had the salmon and it was delicious!
To learn more about the venue, check out my post from the last time I attended a show here earlier this year.
THE SHOW
BRIANNA NELSON
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Brianna Nelson was performing and writing music before she was a teenager. She appeared on the television singing competition The Voice in 2014 when she was just 15 years old. She followed that appearance up with her first EP, which was released in 2015.
Nelson describes her genre of music as “Boho Pop”. She is currently studying songwriting and vocal performance at the Berklee College of Music.
THE PERFORMANCE
Nelson took the stage just after 8:00 p.m. with her guitar accompanying her. Her set started with a little sound mishap. About halfway into her first song, there was some major feedback. Rather than getting frazzled, Nelson took the opportunity to say hello to the audience and talk a little about her music.
For her second song, Nelson played “Real Man”. Since none of her music is officially recorded yet, you can’t stream any of it on any online service, but you can listen to it here!
During her set, Nelson talked a lot about going to school at Berklee. She told the crowd that most of her songs were homework assignments, and that she’s had to write about one song per week. Nelson said she wasn’t going to share the grades she got on the assignments, but it was making her a better songwriter.
Brianna Nelson is a lovely singer/songwriter with a lot of talent and potential.
Nelson included a cover of Amos Lee’s song “Violin” in her set. She also played her song “Houses, Hearts and Hope”, which she wrote as part of The Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter’s Project. It’s a week long camp in Chicago, where young songwriters have the opportunity to collaborate with others and hone their songwriting skills.
Nelson wrapped up her set with her most upbeat song – “Gypsy Glory”.
Nelson has a few upcoming show dates in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area. Check her website for more information.
Set List: First song unknown, Real Man, Wander, Violin (Amos Lee cover), Houses, Hearts and Hopes, Gypsy Glory
CHRIS PATERNO
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chris Paterno first hit the music scene in 2015, when he formed The Chris Paterno Band. Just two months after the band was formed, Grammy-winning producer Joe Nicolo caught one of their shows in Spring City, PA. After seeing the show, Nicolo immediately signed the band to his record label and they started recording their first EP – Brighter Days.
Today, Paterno is living in Nashville and writing music professionally for a publishing company.
THE SHOW
There was a very quick break between Nelson leaving the stage and Paterno coming on. Like Nelson, Paterno performed solo with just his guitar. He immediately told the audience that he writes songs for a publishing company, so most of the songs he was going to perform were songs he didn’t write for himself.
In addition to his original songs, Paterno’s set featured two covers. First was “The Weight” by The Band. The other was “My Stupid Mouth” by John Mayer, who Paterno said was one of his favorite artists.
Paterno said he has written about 90 songs so far this year, and only 2 of them were for himself. One of those songs was called “Paper Airplanes”, which he played during his set. He said the song came to him when he broke up with a girlfriend and threw all the letters she had written to him down the trash chute of his apartment complex. Watching the letters fall down the chute reminded him of paper airplanes he made when he was a kid.
Chris Paterno performing solo on stage at World Café Live.
Paterno certainly has an interesting career as a professional songwriter. It will be interesting to see how his talent for songwriting and his love for performing end up working out for him in the future.
Set List: First two songs unknown, The Weight (The Band cover), Paper Airplanes, Wandering, Slow Bolt of Lightning, Le Me Down Easy, unknown, My Stupid Life (John Mayer cover), One More Night, Unfaithful
MARIELLE KRAFT
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Originally from Rhode Island, Marielle Kraft is currently based out of Delaware just outside of Philadelphia. She started playing the guitar at 16 years old, and started writing her own songs shortly thereafter.
Kraft released a live EP – The Gibraltar Sessions – in 2016. The EP features five of her original songs. In 2017, Kraft released her single – “How Far You Feel”. The song has collected over 350,000 streams.
In 2018, Kraft decided to leave her teaching career and dedicate herself to pursuing her music career.
Kraft released the single “Toothbrush” at the beginning of 2019. She released a video to go along with the single, which featured some of her fans singing along with custom Marielle Kraft toothbrushes.
Her latest single – “Better Without You” – was released in May of 2019 and her debut studio recorded EP – The Deep End – was just released earlier this month.
Kraft’s catchy lyrics and melodies are helping her to continue building her audience. She’s had over 500,000 streams and nearly 14,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. In 2018, Kraft won the Mid-Atlantic Singer-Songwriter Competition. And in June of 2018, Kraft delivered a TEDx Talk at the Firefly Music Festival, where she spoke about the honesty in her songwriting.
THE SHOW
Kraft took the stage around 9:30 p.m. with a full band. She kicked the show off with the toe tapper – “Hey You”. Kraft then slowed things down a bit with “How Far You Feel”, which she said was written about a long distance relationship.
Kraft has great stage presence and is a really good story teller. For most of her songs, she shared the story and inspiration behind them. One of the funniest stories was for the song “Meet In The Middle”, which is about getting in her car and driving to Virginia to meet the person she was in a long distance relationship with. The song lyrics mention renting an Air BnB, and Kraft said she tried to sell the song to them to use as their theme song, but they didn’t bite.
One of the more special moments of the night was when Kraft brought her former University of Delaware classmate – Sarah Miller – on stage to play cello. Kraft introduced the song “Box” and talked about how she wrote it on her bedroom floor at 2 a.m. one morning in tears. She said she always pictured the song with a cello, and was thrilled to have Miller play on the recording, as well as live with her on stage. The song was clearly emotional for Kraft, and really captured the audience.
Sarah Miller joined Marielle Kraft and her band on stage to play cello during “Box”.
Kraft also spoke about how she started working with other co-writers this year. One of those co-writers was Chris Paterno, who came on stage and performed the song they wrote together – “Spin On It”.
Kraft’s set went on to include a cover of the Avril Lavigne hit “Complicated”, that had the whole audience singing along.
Kraft wrapped up her set with her latest single “Better Without You”, which she said she loved playing in this area since everyone could appreciate the reference in the lyrics to Delaware. Her final song was “Test Drive”. Kraft taught the audience a call and response part, and joked that she was still teaching even though she left her teaching position. She gave a shout out to her former student teacher supervisor, who was in the audience.
Marielle Kraft and her band sounded great and gave the “hometown” crowd a great show!
I think Kraft’s songs have a very Taylor Swift “vibe” to them. With her musical talent and great stage presence, the sky is the limit for Kraft!
Kraft went on the road with a four city record release tour to promote the new EP, which included this Philadelphia show. Be sure to check out her website to stay up on news about future music releases and dates.
Set List (click on any link to purchase the song directly on Amazon): Hey You, How Far You Feel, Meet In The Middle, Out of River, Toothbrush, Box, Who We Were, Spin On It, Complicated (Avril Lavigne cover), Bring Him Up, Better Without You, Test Drive Encore: unknown
Did you check out the music of any of the artists from this show? What did you think? Let us know! Please comment below or e-mail me at tips2livebywriter@gmail.com.
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