Sat 2/24 @ 9PM
Alternative country artist Nora Jane Struthers has been through northeast Ohio many times in the last five or six years. The hard-working singer has played virtually every venue amenable to her acoustic-flavored folk/roots music including Happy Days Lodge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Oberlin’s Riverdog Barn, the Blue Sky Folk Festival in Lake County, the Music Box, Akron’s Musica and Nighttown.
The former schoolteacher moved to Nashville and traded teaching for a full-time music career nearly a decade ago. Since then, she has parlayed her clear, warm vocals, with echoes of both bluegrass and rock & roll, into a flourishing career, fueled by major festival appearances and four critically acclaimed albums. The most recent is the 13-track Champion, released last October, and recorded with her long-time touring band the Party Line. It was named by No Depression magazine as one of its favorite albums of 2017
While her 2015 album Wake looked at new love and the beginning of a relationship, she married band member/multi-instrumentalist Joe Overton in 2016 and found new subject matter that’s fairly unusual: her infertility. In her bio she says, “I’m 33 and want to start a family but when I was 18 I was diagnosed with a condition called premature ovarian failure. I’ve known for a long time that I’m going to have to find other ways to have kids. A lot of the songs on the album are about my personal fertility quest.”
She continues, “I’ve been watching my family and friends become new mothers and parents. Everybody’s path is so different and there are always challenges, but that present in different ways for different people.” Struthers looks sympathetically at those diverse journeys, including that of a friend going through a rough pregnancy that resulted in miscarriage, and says that sharing her situation and looking at those others has helped with her feelings of isolation.
Struthers will be back at the Beachland Tavern, where she has played previously to share these new tunes, as well as old favorites. She’ll be joined by opening act, Cleveland singer/songwriter Thor Platter.
Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door.
Cleveland, OH 44110