Carly Calbero was out earning a living. Somebody stopped to listen — and not just anybody.
“It was really random,” the 19-year-old said Friday.
Now, the Marysville-Pilchuck High School graduate is one of eight finalists in a Street to Stage contest sponsored by Rolling Stone magazine and Sprint. The street musician getting the most votes online will win a chance to play next year at the Rolling Stone Rock Room, an Austin, Texas, music event.
With her acoustic guitar, surprisingly big voice, and the nerve to make a go at music all by herself, she’s a regular at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. In May, Calbero played at the Northwest Folklife Festival at Seattle Center. She has sung in restaurants and clubs from Arlington to Seattle’s Georgetown area.
These days, her stage is the street.
Several times a week Calbero takes a bus from her Everett apartment to Seattle to belt out songs for all who’ll listen. Her repertoire is an engaging mix of original compositions and covers — Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” among them.
In early April, she happened to be at Seattle’s Pacific Place singing Brandi Carlile’s “The Story.” And yes, she hits that song’s ragged high note to perfection. A scout for the Rolling Stone contest picked her out, along with a few other area musicians.
“They sent a bunch of scouts across the country,” she said. “They identified themselves and had us fill out a form with contact information.” Contestants were narrowed down to eight after the musicians’ websites were looked at, Calbero said. Rolling Stone staff involved in the contest could not be reached for comment Friday.
Her competitors are from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco and New Orleans. Online voting continues until Sept. 20.
Calbero learned in early May that she was a finalist. Late last month a video crew sent by Rolling Stone taped her performing at Pike Place Market. The video, on the contest website, shows Calbero performing an original song, “Middle-Age 13.”
She’s far from famous, but Calbero said she supports herself on what she earns playing music in public places.
“I’ll pull in between $50 and $100 on an average day. On weekends, it can be between $100 and $200,” she said. Tourists, Germans especially, can be quite generous, said Calbero, who pays $30 a year for a permit to perform at Pike Place Market.
Unlike some buskers, she has background in music theory. Calbero took music theory classes at Marysville-Pilchuck, where she graduated in 2010, and at Edmonds Community College. She was 11 when she started guitar lessons, and sang in school choirs.
Calbero said she auditioned for the Berklee College of Music and was accepted. She decided that tuition at the Boston school, which held auditions at Seattle’s Experience Music Project, was prohibitively expensive. “They liked me. I got in,” she said. “I decided to learn everything on my own.”
With a sound she calls “a more hard-core version of Sarah McLachlan — more upbeat with sarcastic humor and driving guitar chords,” Calbero has made two CDs, available at her website. “A lot of people ask me how that sound comes out of that little body,” she said.
Her idea of a great career would be to sign with an independent label and slowly build a loyal following. A Canadian duo, Tegan and Sara, is a big influence for her.
Long before Rolling Stone noticed, she had followers.
Sonja Wanichek met the young musician while working as a college leader for high school students at Marysville Free Methodist Church.
“She’d play at restaurants and invite me to come out,” Wanichek said. “She does have the edgy voice. I’m one of her biggest fans.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Street musician contest
Carly Calbero, a Marysville-Pilchuck High School graduate, is one of eight finalists in an online Rolling Stone magazine street musician contest. Hear Calbero and vote at: www.rollingstone.com/sprintstreet.
Learn more about Calbero’s music: www.carlycalbero.com.
Listen to more of Calbero’s music in these YouTube clips:
• “The Outlining”
• Singing outside the Pike Place Market
• At Folklife
Calbero’s Rolling stone contest page is here.
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