It’s somewhat fitting that area musicians Owen Danoff and ellen cherry will be among the six adult competitors in the inaugural Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards Friday night at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club.
The two musicians have performed together in the past, as Simon & Garfunkel in a 2010 tribute show. Danoff played the part of Paul Simon, while cherry, who asks that her name not be capitalized (more on that later) played Art Garfunkel.
Both have a somewhat similar style to the famous singers and they will be showing off their skills when they perform as part of the competition. The contest was founded through a donation by the Bernard Family Foundation in honor of famous songwriter Fred Ebb, who composed works with partner John Kander such as the Broadway hits Cabaret and Chicago. Ebb died in 2004 at the age of 76.
For cherry, a Baltimore resident originally from Texas, who has been earning a “very lean living” as a musician for the past dozen or so years, the event represents an opportunity.
On Friday night she will perform two of her songs, “I Hope to Dream of You Tonight” and “Pickett’s Charge.” The latter is an homage to her love of history, which she studied in college. The former is a love song she wrote about a specific person—though she won’t say who—while on the road performing.
“I definitely had a muse for that,” cherry said. “But he’s a pretty private person."
She says she never capitalizes her name to remind herself that she’s just one person contributing to a much larger world of art and to combat what she says are big egos in the industry.
Danoff grew up in the Palisades area of Northwest Washington and is a 2011 graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He says Simon is one of his biggest inspirations.
Danoff plans to perform three tracks from his latest album, Twelve Stories, during the competition. He wrote one of them, “Amsterdam,”while touring through Europe with a group of friends after college. He says at each train station he would play the same guitar riff, which ended up becoming the beginning of the song. Danoff says he wrote another of the songs, “I Wish I knew Better,” in his friend’s New York City apartment.
“The first line says ‘Lost in SoHo’,” Danoff said. “At the time I had no idea what SoHo was, but I knew it was a thing and it rhymed with the next line.”
He said the song is about “making the same mistake over and over again and not learning from it.”
Danoff said he’s happy to be performing in the competition, but with six competitors he staked his chances at 1 in 6.
The show, which features all six adult competitors as well as three teen songwriters, starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here. The winner will be chosen from a panel of three judges.
