Text and photos by Connie Leinbach
Marcy Brenner and her husband Lou Castro intend to create magic for 15 weeks this summer.
The duo, whose name is Coyote, is launching a listening room-type concert experience titled “Coyote Plus One” Tuesday nights from May 26 to Sept. 1 at 8 in the Ocracoke Community Center.
The concerts will include a different musician and tickets will cost $15 each.
Exploring music is what it’s all about and the music trio seems to be magic, Marcy said in a recent interview.
“I want to play with everybody, every song and every person,” she said about the new direction for the two following their departure from Molasses Creek last year.
After six years of touring, Marcy and Lou wanted to stay home and make music.
“We were really lucky to play with Molasses Creek, and Gary and Dave blessed us,” Marcy said. “Molasses Creek was one genre and we missed jazz and rock. That’s why we’re ‘Coyote,’ a trickster. You can go in any direction.”
But, she said, they aren’t going into a new direction, but are going deeper into the music.
“The most fun thing is playing with other people,” she said about this new venture. “Other musicians bring more to the table because every time you play with someone else you learn something new.”
Adding a third person to their duo adds more sound, Lou said.
The set lists for each concert have been carefully planned as have the additional musicians.
“Each one of these players can stand on their own,” Marcy said, who admitted she does not like to be the star, but likes to be part of the pack.
Marcy, who is classically trained on the guitar, the violin and other band instruments, is most often seen playing the mandolin. She plays it intuitively, she said, and has not been trained on this instrument that is tuned like a violin than the guitar.
“I can fly on it,” she said.
When the music is going well, musicians find their “zone.”
“For me, the ‘zone’ is to communicate,” Marcy said. “That conversation is what I want.”
Those who can’t get to the live experience of Coyote Plus One will be able to see and hear the concert live and in real time via a new technology called Concert Window.
When the doors open at 7:30 p.m., the events will go live at concertwindow.com/coyote. For $1, people can tune in on their computers only (not cell phones). After the concert, the broadcast will disappear.
Virtual audience members will be able to send over a performer “tip,” which goes into the virtual tip jar. Concertwindow.com processes tickets/tips. It also pays the royalties on copyrighted material and sends the rest to the artist.
“It’s pretty sweet to invite the whole world to share this,” Marcy said about the new technology.
Dajio Restaurant is sponsoring the band and Jessie Morrissey of Nags Head created the graphics, including a poster showing all the performers in a take on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album from the 1960s.
Guest performers include: Jamie Tunnell Carter, Ocracoke, NC; Aaron Caswell, Ocracoke, NC; Kim France, Ocracoke/Boone, NC; Cristina Garey, Kill Devil Hills, NC; Martin Garrish, Ocracoke, NC; Matt Hoggard, Kill Devil Hills, NC; Sundae Horn, Ocracoke, NC; Jon Lea, Ocracoke, NC; Dave Pollard, Richmond, VA; Rob Sharer, Raleigh, NC; Matt Sheehan, Ocracoke, NC; April Trueblood, Frisco, NC; Jim Wynn, Ocracoke, NC.
For more information visit coyotemusic.net or click here.
