Episode 4: Musician Daria Grace (With In-Studio Performance)
Musician Daria Grace is a prolific bassist, uke player and singer who plays in six bands locally and in New York City.
This week on Beaconites!, she talks about her music career, sizes up Beacon’s expanding music scene and performs two songs on her baritone uke: “Night Owl,” popularized in the 30’s by Cliff Edwards (aka “Ukelele Ike”) and “Under the Milky Way” by Aussie rockers The Church.
Also, in a special honor for the podcast, we got to record this interview on her birthday. Happy birthday Daria!
Since 2007, Daria has been the frontwoman for The Pre-War Ponies, which plays a swing-style jazz featuring what she calls “not quite hits” from like the 1920s through the 1940s. That Tin Pan Alley sound figured in another predecessor band she was in, The Moonlighters, which achieved success in Brooklyn starting in the late 90s. She also collects sheet music from the period.
Daria has been a member of many other musical configurations including Beacon harmony trio The Wynotte Sisters, The Jack Grace Band, hardcore band God Is My Co-Pilot, PI Power Trio, Kings County Queens, Sasha Dobson and Beacon’s own Steve Clair.
“I just like to say yes to everything. I mean I try to. Because I enjoy it,” she says.
As a member of the faculty at Beacon Music Factory, Daria she teaches students to play soprano, tenor and baritone ukulele.
“I’ve had students as young as six and and as old as 70,” she says. “I can have you playing a song in 20 minutes, as long as your fingers work and you can put down one or two of them on the strings.”
2 Responses to “Episode 4: Musician Daria Grace (With In-Studio Performance)”
Great interview. Good questions. Nice flow. Beacon is a great place to visit, and I WOULD like to live there. Love the songs at the end.
What a wonderful voice Daria has! Can’t wait to hear more music on the podcast!