Arts and Entertainment
Montez shines, Ayer bores in Coffeehouse
By Kate Bennert '12, Arts & Entertainment Contributor
December 8, 2011
Last week’s coffeehouse lured a sizeable crowd out of pre-finals week hibernation for what promised to be a warm and vibrant night of acoustic music.
The show opened up with the lovely Sonia Montez, whose Latin influence and quirky personality proved to be a refreshing change of pace for Hamilton’s Acoustic Coffeehouse series this year. A native of Brooklyn, Montez’s debut record Of Tears and Honey is somber and sweet (as the title suggests) and altogether a profound work of art.
I must say I was impressed with her incorporation of classical Latin instruments and her soulful voice, not to mention her biting sarcasm and witty banter. And did I mention that, according to The New York Optimist, her influences include “lemurs and other Madagascaran animals?” To quote my good friend and former Acoustic Coffeehouse Coordinator Jen Keefe ’12, Montez “is basically the Adele of Latin music,” and I can’t say that I disagree. Montez is currently working on her next studio album.
Perhaps it seems that I have a habit of being too hard on the headliners, but I found Chris Ayer to be a bit of a bore. He’s a stellar musician, talented, endearing, attractive, yaddah yaddah. But, to be honest, his act was tired and he sounds exactly the same as all the other male, acoustic, solo artists out there. His most famous song “Awake” off the album Don’t Go Back to Sleep, sounds way too familiar—like something from Dave Barnes, Micah, Joey Ryan...all past acoustic coffeehouse performers. In fact, Ayer sounded a bit too much like an American Idol contestant.
I should clarify that I still appreciated his voice and his music overall, but I can’t say that I will listen to his record. I would like to see some more diversity when it comes to Acoustic Coffeehouse music in the future. Montez was a refreshing surprise, but Ayer was just more of the same old stuff.
I promise that there are more acoustic musicians out there than these young, white guys with guitars. I’d like to see someone like Angel Taylor or YouTube star Julia Nunes. That’s just a thought, though.