About Barbara Kessler --- ca. 1994
Barbara Kessler is a singer-songwriter whose time has come. Since
1989, she has been stunning audiences with a voice that has been called
"soulful," "seductive," "heartstoppingly beautiful," "dynamic," and
"mesmerizing" by various promoters and reviewers. Lyrically direct
and emotionally powerful, Barbara has been formally recognized for her
songwriting ability on numerous occasions. In 1989, she won the
New Faces in Folk contest at the New England Festival of Folk Music.
At the 1991 Great Woods Performing Arts Center Folk Festival, she
won second place in the songwriter's competition sponsored by Rounder
Records. In 1992 and 1993 she rose to the top of over 300 performers
in the Boston Acoustic Underground Competition. (Her songs appear
on both CD compilations of The Acoustic Underground.) In 1993, she
was nominated for a prestigious Boston Music Award for "Outstanding
New Folk/Acoustic Act." Barbara also appears on the newest
Folk Next Door compilation released by WWUH in Connecticut as well
as on on Fast Folk's Boston Revisited. Two of her songs can
be found on these popular Rounder/Philo Records artist compilations produced
by Christine Lavin:
Big Times in a Small Town: The Vineyard Tapes
and Follow That Road.
After graduating from Cornell University in New York, Barbara travelled
extensively throughout the U.S., the South Pacific, New Zealand and
Australia, settling for a period in the Seattle area where she began
to write and perform in that region's rich music scene. Her various
"day jobs" have included counseling and sex education with teenagers,
and these experiences have enhanced and informed her writing with a
unique sensitivity. Since settling in New England, she has been
garnering critical and popular acclaim in the area's circuit of clubs
and coffeehouses.
A cut from Barbara Kessler Live, Kessler's self-released 10 song
cassette, was featured on the American Public Radio program
World Cafe. Barbara Kessler can also be heard on radio stations
throughout the Northeast where several of her songs are among the
most requested.
--- From Kessler's 1994 Press Kit
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