Alicia Witt drawn to rock and roles

Witt’s amped for gig

 By Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein

Globe Staff

Worcester native Alicia Witt, a musician and actress who has appeared on TV shows such as “Friday Night Lights’’ and “Medium,’’ and in movies such as “Two Weeks Notice,’’ is in town tonight for a performance at Berklee’s Cafe 939. She called us from New York yesterday to tell us that she’s giddy about her Massachusetts gig, and thrilled that performing live music has become a second profession. “Making music is so hugely a part of my blood.’’ Witt (inset) indulged us by answering our questions about her connection to Super Bowl performer Madonna. Witt played Madonna’s young girlfriend in the 1995 movie “Four Rooms.’’ Witt said that she and Madonna aren’t close, but that she has seen her a few times since the movie and that the pop star has always been charming. Tonight’s show starts at 8.

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Alicia Witt (With Mike Maven and Ken Yates)
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday Where: Café 939, Berklee College of Music, 939 Boylston St., Boston How much: $12. To buy tickets: http://www.berklee.edu/events/detail/12015 /alicia-witt- young-pandas-ken-yates

Worcester’s talented, attractive, redhead actress Alicia Witt is performing a new role these days, and pouring her heart and soul into it.

Witt (who was a regular on the TV series “Friday Night Lights” and also has a recurring part in “The Mentalist”) has made five movies over the past few months that are in various stages of preparation, pre-release and release. But Wednesday you can see her in a different artistic milieu when she appears at Café 939 at Berklee College of Music, 939 Boylston St., Boston.

It’s a real-life part: Wittt as singer-songwriter. Also performing at the show, which starts at 8 p.m., will be Mike Maven and Ken Yates.

“I usually play a bunch of my original songs,” Witt said about what to expect at tomorrow’s concert during a telephone interview last week from her Los Angeles base. She’ll have a couple of New York City musicians playing guitar and drums. Witt will be at the piano.

“I’ve been playing the piano my whole life, but being a singer-songwriter in a band is a very different endeavor,” she said.

And she’s found that performing as a singer — especially when it comes to singing her own songs — is rather different than performing as an actor.

“Acting — playing a role — in a way, it’s very safe,” Witt said. “When you’re singing your own music, you’re really putting yourself out there. It’s definitely much more personal and much more vulnerable. You can almost hide behind a character if you’re playing one. A lot of my songs, even if it’s not something I’ve personally experienced, it’s a great way to communicate what you’re feeling and be much more expressive.”

The sight of Witt at a piano will bring back memories for some local music fans of a certain age who might recall a brilliant and precocious child performing piano at a couple of local nightspots including the former Clarion Suites in Worcester. The talent extended to other areas. On the TV show “That’s Incredible,” a very young Witt recited Shakespeare. In 1984, avant-garde director David Lynch cast her in his movie “Dune,” and later in his TV series “Twin Peaks.”

It’s been a stellar acting career for someone who is still only 36. Among other notable films are “88 Minutes” (playing opposite Al Pacino), “Two Weeks Notice” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” TV shows have included “Cybill,” “Law and Order” and a memorable appearance on “The Sopranos.”

Still, Witt, a classically trained pianist, never forgot about music, and, as she related in an earlier interview, found that songs started calling to her to be written.

“I’ve always written songs and dabbled in writing songs just for fun, but this thing all started coming out so seriously,” she said. “A friend said you need to start playing them some place other than your living room. Now I can’t imagine my life without it.”

She’s been performing them at venues across the country such as Hotel Café and Universal Citywalk in Los Angeles, and Joe’s Pub and The Living Room in New York.

She released a self-titled EP and made her first music video for the track “Anyway” (about a “toxic relationship”) that played on MTV and VH1.com. The songs can riff sharply, as in an angry sounding but cathartic statement about a broken relationship. Elsewhere, the feel is sometimes jazzy and poignant. There are a number of surprises, including Witt’s interpretation of Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al.”

A more recent iTunes single, “Me or New York,” has had good radio play and been described by Mike Mettler in Sound and Vision magazine as “an instant heart-grabber.”

Witt appeared on the cover of Sound and Vision recently, and it is a measure of how far she has come as a singer-songwriter that the story and Q&A with her focuses much more on the sound — i.e. her songs — than the appealing vision Witt always conveys in her movies (although there is a very good looking photo spread).

“When I’m working on a movie I’ve always got lyrics and melodies in my head,” Witt said last week. “I’m constantly writing.”

But don’t think that Witt is considering giving up the day job, if that’s what acting can be called in her case.

“No. No,” she said emphatically, then mentioned some of her new films that will be coming out soon.

“Joint Body” (about a parolee who finds kinship with a troubled woman who helps him re-evaluate his life) is already hitting the film festivals, Witt noted. “Away From Here” is “about to go to festivals.” Meanwhile, “Cowgirls n’ Angels” (rodeo trick riders) is being put together for release soon. And filming has just been completed for “I Do,” which tackles immigration. “I think it turned out really well,” Witt said. She has a pending appearance on “The Mentalist” early February.

The critically acclaimed “Friday Night Lights” (a drama based around a high school football team) ended its run February 2011. “That was so fun,” Witt said. The cast had such a natural rapport that “we just felt that we weren’t even making a television series.”

Performing your music live is one way to hopefully get an instant rapport with an audience. After one recent show, someone in attendance approached Witt and told her a song had “ ‘made me feel less lonely.’ ”

“Certainly if someone is moved by my music, it means the world to me.”

Being “out there” and vulnerable, however, can also mean the potential of slings and arrows.

Criticism?

“I wouldn’t take it personally because music is so subjective,” Witt said. “If someone were to say ‘you’re phenomenally under-talented as a musician,’ that would hurt a little bit. But I’ve been playing music all my life.”

Another difference between acting and singing is process — as in the process of building a career. With acting it can often be as simple as trying out for an audition and being hired or not, Witt observed. “With every connection I’ve made in the music business it’s someone listening to a song and introducing me to someone.”

Witt would like to make a full studio album, “but I’m still trying to figure out who I’m working with … For an album I want to make sure I produce the songs exactly the way I want them.”

She’s considering releasing a live album.

Of course, a big hit would probably help the cause, with “Anyway” and “Me or New York” showing promise in that direction.

“It would be fantastic if a song would take off. It’s amazing when a song takes off and people are humming it on large scale. It’s a massive, massive honor.”

Witt is undaunted about the challenges.

“It’s just a real labor of love trying to figure out how it all fits together,” she said. “I just try to have a really great time with it and see where it takes me.”

Her travels do take her back here, but her performances are usually in Boston.

As ever, therefore, the final question was — what about Worcester?

“That would be nice,” she said of doing a show here. But she’s not so familiar with the scene as she once was. “I don’t even know where to play.”

But she might entertain suggestions.

Witt’s music is at www.aliciawittmusic.com.

a friend just lost her husband and buried him in Minnesota… probably right below where i am now. yesterday, the day of the funeral, was apparently the coldest one so far this winter. i wanted to share their love story anyway though, because it is one of the truest and most inspiring i’ve ever known.

elizabeth met bill about 4 years ago and they fell in love almost instantly. they planned to get married; she had moved from LA to florida to be with him. and then, literally out of the blue, he started having strange symptoms… and they found out that he had a brain tumor. after surgery and chemo, the doctors weren’t expecting him to survive very long so they moved up the wedding to make sure that when he passed, at least they would be married.

but then a miracle happened… he started getting better. and the most incredible miracle of all… about a year after their wedding, they conceived. 2 years ago, their beautiful daughter was born (she looks just like bill). and up until he started losing his battle in earnest a few months ago, he was able to know his baby girl before he left. bill passed away last weekend, leaving behind an angel whose creation no one could have imagined would be possible a few years ago. so he lives on through her.

and through it all, elizabeth remained a pillar of indescribable strength and love. she is the proof that, when you fall in love for real, ‘for better or for worse’ knows no bounds.

their story sends shivers through me as i sit here writing it… i am moved to tears by the reminder of what love truly is, what it can be when it’s real and boundless. so many of us (i’m guilty) have settled for less… allowed unkind words or actions to become acceptable; remained too long in a situation where we either aren’t in love or where we aren’t loved the way we know we long to be; and let our head rationalize our way through staying when our intuition is screaming that it isn’t right. when i think of elizabeth and bill, i know that love isn’t any of those things. it gives me faith that it exists… the way i dream it; with give and take but never compromise. as elton john said, ‘it’s no sacrifice’.

may all those reading this take a moment in bill’s honor to treasure those we love… and to be grateful for a world where love exists when we believe in it.

a

as of two days ago i was planning to spend a quiet, grounded evening at home, setting intentions on my own, just me and the animals. then i unexpectedly got invited to join in a last minute vegas extravaganza. what exactly we will end up doing tonight i honestly don’t know for sure, as i write this at quarter of five. and the amazing thing? it doesn’t matter. i’ve figured out what 2012 is supposed to be… the year of strength and faith and staying serenely in control of where my heart is supposed to be, while surrendering any sense of knowing exactly what i have to do or where i have to go… embracing spontaneity and intuition, intuition, intuition. what if this was the year to actually listen to it with no apologies? what if for once, every single day this year, i trusted my gut each step of the way and didn’t doubt it, while at the same time allowing my path to be swayed by last minute changes and impulses? i’ve always been somewhat superstitious about new year’s eve, and i truly feel that that’s what my purpose in being here is, in so called ‘sin city’, as the changing of the year approaches.

there’s something else i want to take note of. yesterday i had the gift of attending the funeral for a very special girl who was dear to one of my best friends… her name was tahnee and she lost her lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis on Christmas day. she was 22 years old. born in 1989. so few years here on earth in this body, and yet she changed so many lives with her positive attitude and her laughter and her sense of humor, and the fact that she was determined to live every single day that she was given to the very fullest. i left the service yesterday just overwhelmed with the sense that.. there is so much pain in this world, so many miscommunications, so many careless exchanges, so much love gone lost thanks to unhealed wounds and unappreciated blessings and petty insecure jealousies that add up to nothing in the end. and this sweet girl could only be here for such a short time, and never once complained, never once felt sorry for herself, only felt grateful for what she had. if her life was brief, the least we who were touched by her can do to honor her is truly to learn from that… and to share with others. so i am sharing with you, whoever is reading this.

so this is me signing out for 2011… i am sending love, peace, and strength to all of you. thank you for being a part of my journey. thank you for allowing me to share my world with you. never did i imagine i’d be writing my annual year end thoughts sitting at a bar in a vegas hotel eating a salad and drinking a patron margarita. but that’s what life is sometimes. unexpected and perfect. here’s to a fearless, shining 2012.

alicia

i’m excited to share with you my brand new rock version of Santa Baby! if you like it, please share it, re-post it, tweet it… this is out to radio as of today and will be on iTunes within the next day, i’ll let you know when it’s available to download!

this was recorded in the KOSI 101 studios on tuesday live in denver… my awesome band (kaumyar delkash on drums, andy barr on bass) joined me to rock out. what you hear was one take all the way thru!

no swingin’ cutesy version here, that’s been done before. this one’s more ‘yo, santa. what the what? bring it, dude.’ anyway, what’s the point of doing a cover if you’re just gonna do it the same way it’s been done before?

special thank you to gary nolan for bringing us out, to richard in the studios for recording it, and zach mcnees for doing this ultra-fast ultra-awesome mix!

this has gone out to radio and is already being played on KOSI…

thank you for listening!

alicia

i spent my thanksgiving with an array of the most beautiful friends… started out at a dear friend’s home for dinner, and then made my way to another dear friend’s for the post-thanksgiving festivities.

several of you have asked what i eat for thanksgiving dinner for vegan/vegetarian options… all the guests at this dinner were turkey eaters aside from me, so i brought the field roast loaf from whole foods for myself. it was my first time making this one and it was delicious. brought tofurky gravy ; it’s my favorite pre-made gravy; so rich and actually goes really well with actual meat as well as non-meat… many of the guests used it on their turkey and mashed potatoes. and then at the hostess’ request, i made chestnut leek mushroom stuffing , which i’ve been making for the last 5 years or so for every thanksgiving/christmas dinner. it’s so, so good and so easy to make. i simply substitute a non-dairy creamer (yesterday i used coconut creamer) and earth balance spread instead of butter. i also substituted egg replacer for the egg in the recipe. again, this went great with the non-vegan meal as well as the vegan one. even before i became vegan, i didn’t cook with butter, milk, or eggs, with very few exceptions… and even if you are not completely vegan, substituting these products out can save you a lot of cholesterol in your diet.

also, despite the fact that turkey was served for most of the guests yesterday, my friend who was hosting was very thoughtful and made many of the sides dairy free so that i could eat them as well. and! for dessert she ordered 2 of the most insane pies i’ve ever tasted from cafe gratitude … we had a chocolate coconut mousse and a pumpkin cream pie. mouth still watering. why oh why did i forget to take leftovers of those? (probably for the best; they wouldn’t have survived the car ride home)

also! i’m excited to announce also that i have an official boston gig booked for fri, dec 23! hope some of you who are based in new england can come out for a pre-holidays night on the town and join me for a special acoustic set. it’s been way too long since i’ve played boston and i’ll be visiting friends and family in town (i was born in worcester, ma and my parents live there), and i didn’t think the trip would be complete without a show.

in other news: i am very excited to be about to visit big sur for my very first time this weekend! not quite sure how i’ve lived in LA for 20 years and managed to never see it. guess i was waiting for the perfect time and the perfect company. have any of you been? any suggestions for places i mustn’t miss? jake and maggie will be joining so any doggie-friendly suggestions most welcome too. and i’ll post pictures!

here’s jake and maggie on a big-bear snow adventure a few years back!

and just for fun: here’s jake and maggie 11 and 9 years ago, respectively:

hope you all have a great weekend and i will post pictures from big sur!

alicia

Friday, Dec 23, 9 PM

$6 at door

21+

please join me for a special pre-holiday acoustic set at All Asia, in the heart of Cambridge.can’t wait to play you some of my new songs and finally see you all for the first time in 2 years…

if you haven’t yet seen the video interview i did with PETA , please check it out… it’s all about why i became vegan and why i am so passionate about rescuing, as opposed to buying, animal friends. my 2 beautiful dogs, jake and maggie, are featured in the interview as well! (my cat jessie is pictured above, terrifying jake with her trademark jedi stare)

speaking of which… i get asked a lot if it’s hard for me being vegan; if i can only eat in certain restaurants or if i miss certain foods. it’s not hard at all! there’s very few restaurants where i can’t find anything to eat; if it’s a tricky one i’ll just peruse the menu, scope out a list of ingredients that look good, and then ask the server if the kitchen can prepare a special plate of those (helpful hint: mentioning that you’re vegan helps cut thru any ‘no changes to the menu’ red tape). as for missing foods… i really don’t. when i decided to go completely vegan, almost a year and a half ago (from being pescetarian for 11 years prior to that), i wondered if i would miss sushi. and always told myself that if i was craving it, i’d take that as a sign from my body that i needed it. i mostly felt that i was eating SO much sushi, and fish in general… often 2x a day… that it would be a good idea to cut back, partly because i thought it was too much health-wise, but also because i started becoming very aware that i was needlessly consuming all those lives… and becoming more aware of the toll that mass-fishing is taking on our environment.

but to my surprise, i haven’t craved fish at all. dairy and eggs were easy to give up; it doesn’t make any sense to me why humans should consume milk that’s intended for baby cows, and even though i ate dairy before, it was only out of convenience… if i were out to eat and cheese was being served, or ice cream was for dessert, i didn’t think twice about eating them. always noticed the difference in my body though. and it’s amazing how not-appetizing it tastes to me.

when i was in croatia/italy over the summer, i made up my mind to eat things that were non-vegan if and when i wanted to… really the same as how i live anyway… and i tasted one piece of parmesan, one bite of a homemade dessert that had milk in it, and a piece of grilled calamari. and honestly, they tasted horrible to me after not having eaten them for a while… not in the least as though it was something i’d missed or would start craving again. i’m glad that i tried them though, because it just re-inforced to me that i’m eating not only in a way that feels ethical to me, but also that i’m eating what i want to.

i guess my point in all this is just to say that i’m not vegan because i’m trying to take a stand or be a martyr or anything like that… i just feel that people should be aware of what they’re eating and not be in the dark about the fact that there is great suffering going on in the creation of what becomes ‘meat’… it’s not a strange or deprivation-based way to eat in the least. that being said… while i know this may not be the diet that feels right for everyone… i feel very strongly that we should just be aware of what it is we’re eating and what went into creating it. and just because you don’t want to give up meat entirely doesn’t mean that you have to have it at every meal, or even every day. by the same token, if you want to try eating vegan or mostly vegan for a time, there’s no rule that says you have to eat that way forever.  there are no rules! rules are made to be broken! if you make it, you will break it. (or something like that)

one of the things i enjoy the most is cooking, and i had a blast over this weekend cooking some new dishes for a little mini xmas lights-putting-up party at mine! a few of my favorite cookbooks are the conscious cook and the vegan table; i tried this corn chowder recipe last night.. it was perfect for a chilly, rainy night in LA

i’m still on the hunt for a massachusetts venue for a little pre-christmas acoustic piano-bar type gig! open for suggestions if you have any. thank you to those who asked about surrounding cities/states but this time around it would have to be MA since i am going to be visiting family/friends at that time, after my dec 15 show at the living room in nyc! tickets onsale  here.

on that note, i may have a big boston gig with band on jan 25! details coming soon…

excited about travelling to denver for KOSI 101′s jingle jam 2011 in 2 weeks! i’ll also be recording an exclusive xmas song in the KOSI studios. here’s a pic from last time i went by…

(good thing i saw this, i’ll remember not to wear the same outfit!!)

during that same trip, we also went by red rocks for an impromptu mime-instrument jam session…

hope you all had a great weekend…  more soon!

a