East Hampton gets a dose of hope from emerging musicians

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The word “hope” has never been more charged with meaning than in the past year, due to its high-profile use in President Obama’s successful campaign, but for musicians struggling with the meltdown of the record industry, hope is something many derive from creating a creative community that can thrive in a brand new music marketplace.

Nona Hendryx, whose music has consistently defied categorization since she embarked on a solo career after leaving the group Labelle in 1977, first began producing a series of shows known as Hopestock in New York City early this past summer. This Friday, she will bring a jam-packed lineup of 10 emerging musicians from a wide variety of genres to the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton for a show that she hopes will encourage viewers to see music in far more broad terms.

“There’s a thriving live music scene, but it’s very difficult for emerging artists to get in, and they don’t have as much support as I had,” she said.

This spring, Ms. Hendryx assembled a team of friends who were music journalists, A&R professionals and publicists who now suddenly found that their own careers were in flux as record companies consolidated and retail music stores began to fold. They’ve staged several shows in New York and the show’s regular contributors also perform at thrift stores in New York run by Housing Works, a group that helps homeless people living with AIDS find places to live and take care of themselves.

“They knew we were having difficulty, and we formed a support group for artists,” she said of the behind-the-scenes contributors. “This is a way of cross-pollinating our audiences, and to give artists hope. You can lose your passion and enthusiasm, particularly when there are only five people in the audience and you have to pay your rent. It can become daunting.”

Friday’s show is subtitled “Music To Bailout Your Soul.” Sharing the bill with Ms. Hendryx are country-rock singer-songwriter Mary McBride; pianist and songwriter Beth Arentsen; operatically trained baritone and gospel singer Giuseppe Spoletini; the intense early Dylan-infused songwriting of British-born Bobby Long; the knock-your-socks-off soul and funk of Martha Redbone; and Maiysha, whose 2008 debut album was nominated for a Grammy Award. Reuben Butchart’s intense, piano-driven songs, The Ki Ki Experience’s rock/soul/funk intensity, and acoustic soul troubadour Adam Falcon round out the show.

Ms. Hendryx said each artist will perform for approximately 15 minutes, and surprise collaborations are to be expected throughout the evening. That’s to be expected, she said, from a group of musicians who have backgrounds in experimental theater, multimedia projects, dance and promotion.

“Most people pay a lot of money to see one act, and that was that,” said Ms. Hendryx. “For instance, Ki Ki Hawkins is Juilliard trained, but she can rock. In New York, it’s called survival.”

Mary McBride, who lives part time in Southampton, comes from a musical family in Louisiana that was very involved in Democratic politics, and she has played at the two most recent Democratic National Conventions, most recently in a tribute to her home state’s recovery from Hurrican Katrina at the 2008 convention in Denver. She began her career as a playwright, though she’d always played music, and was living in New York on September 11, 2001, after which she suddenly was moved to complete 10 songs that became her first album, “Everything Seemed All Right.”

By the end of that September, the album was complete, and the jarring events of 9/11 had pushed her into a critically acclaimed musical career: she has opened for the likes of Willie Nelson and Coco Taylor. The show at Guild Hall—which will be on September 11—is a full-circle moment for her.

“It’s meaningful for a lot of people,” she said of the solemn day. “It’s always great to be performing on that night. The word ‘hope’ was so meaningful over the past couple of years because it transcends politics. Everyone should have the capacity to hope.”

Ms. McBride, like all of the musicians performing Friday night, met Ms. Hendryx through mutual friends. She became fast friends with Bobby Long after hearing him play at Arlene’s Grocery in New York, and had always been a fan of Ms. Hendryx.

“People forget that she wrote all those songs, and she just has a generous way about her. She reaches out to all kinds of musicians,” she said. “I’m a huge fan of Bobby’s. He’s really in the Jeff Buckley spirit.”

Ms. McBride is now working on a musical called “The Nitpicker,” about a lice epidemic gone awry in a small southern town. “As a kid, I loved musical theater, so it’s coming full circle,” she said.