As a light breeze picked up on Tuesday evening, Caroline Sky settled onto a stool, her acoustic guitar on her lap. The 17-year-old was about to sing for an MVYRadio Porch Concert at the Harbor View Hotel.
All of the signature turquoise rocking chairs were taken, as well as supplemental white folding chairs that had been set out for the performance. Caroline Sky recently rose to national attention while competing on NBC’s The Voice. But Vineyarders have seen the talented teenager perform for years.
Ms. Sky is a summer resident, a Camp Jabberwocky volunteer who’s performed alongside the likes of Joan Baez, Carly Simon, David Crohan and the Tedeschi Trucks Band. On the porch, she performed a mix of covers and originals opening with a Nina Simone song, and closing with The Beatles.
In between songs, Ms. Sky regaled the audience with anecdotes of the two months she spent sequestered in a Los Angeles hotel room with her dad while she was on The Voice.
“I don’t know how he put up with me, but I had to buy earplugs, that man snored like a chain saw. I don’t know how you do it, Mom,” she said, before breaking into Can’t Buy Me Love.
After each song, the audience broke into applause and a dog wearing a red bandana barked his approval.
Ms. Sky recalled her blind audition day for The Voice, how she’d been feeling ill and her mother had offered to get her a cup of tea. The tea was so hot she went into the audition with a burnt tongue along with her upset stomach and sore throat.
“I went in there thinking, there’s no way in hell anybody is going to turn around, but some did,” she said. She performed her audition song Will You Love Me Tomorrow by Carole King.
On Tuesday her voice started husky and low and then soared. Some listeners pulled out their phones to record, others leaned back and enjoyed a drink or rifled through cardboard containers of take-out. Most just listened.
After stories of performing on The Voice, Ms. Sky turned with equal excitement to her experiences volunteering at Camp Jabberwocky. As she prepared to play an original song, Ms. Sky shared how she had recently performed it for studio night at Camp Jabberwocky.
“A camper that I love, Jason, who’s pretty much nonverbal, came on stage and was rocking out on air guitar,” she recalled. “That’s what’s special about Camp Jabberwocky and music, it allows you to connect with people who might be isolated.”
While the porch concert was free, people were urged to donate to Camp Jabberwocky, which Ms. Sky described as her “favorite place in the world” and Vineyard radio station MVYRadio. Ms. Sky took a photo with the crowd promising to tag people on Instagram before playing her last song of the evening.
She closed the porch concert with Come Together by The Beatles and invited the crowd to sing along.
Comments (1)
Comments
Comment policy »