Is it worth it for musicians to play open mics? Well, one open mic night at Mountain View’s Red Rock Coffee in 2014 changed the lives of singer-songwriters Sherry-Lynn Lee and George Paolini.
Lee says, “I had just moved to the Bay Area and the first thing I do whenever I move somewhere is go to an open mic and meet other musicians. I went and saw George perform and really liked it. So I went up to him and said, ‘Hey, do you ever collaborate with people and, if so, would you like to collaborate with me?’”
“I said, ‘Yes, I do collaborate,’” Paolini says. “I actually hadn’t been interested in collaborating. I tried it once in my early days and it didn’t work out. I thought I would never meet anybody I could truly collaborate with. But I had heard Sherry sing a song at Red Rock once and knew she had a great voice. So we got together and started jamming. I figured, ‘What have I got to lose?’”
This time, the collaboration definitely worked. The jams turned into an open mic appearance together. From that, the multi-instrumentalists/vocalists were offered a house concert. So they had to work up an entire set. Soon they were writing together.
Lee says they had nothing in common. Paolini is from Connecticut. Lee grew up on the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, and moved to Toronto, before settling in the Bay Area.
They come from different musical backgrounds and generations. But their differences turned out to be an advantage. Paolini, who turns 62 this week, draws from the classic rock and jazz worlds. “My interest kind of stops around 1980,” he says, laughing.
“And I was born in ’88,” says Lee, 29, who started on classical piano. “So the music I know is mostly ’90s onward.”
Paolini says with a chuckle, “I had to learn Coldplay. She had to learn Duke Ellington and The Beatles.”
But they recognized that they both had strong affinities for melodies, harmonies and good lyrics.
“The rest of it kind of melted away,” Paolini says. “Genre is secondary.”
Paolini had always hoped to stumble upon an ideal collaborator. “I’d read almost everything about McCartney and Lennon and their songwriting collaboration and I always aspired to have that kind of relationship in writing. I never found it. But then it seemed to find me. It certainly adds a whole new dimension. We trade off of one another quite well. And we’re pretty good critics of ourselves and of each other and we can use that constructively to build on.”
Lee gives Paolini more of a modern pop sensibility and she has absorbed, by osmosis, some of his jazz flavors. Lee says, “When we combined both of our musical styles, we came up with something unique.”
The first song they co-wrote, “Perfect Strangers,” has become the title track to their debut album. Over a weekend, they were enjoying jamming so much they just couldn’t stop. After 23 hours, they began writing that first song. That’s why the duo is called 23rd Hour. “That was a magical writing session,” Lee says.
The delightful, smart tunes on “Perfect Strangers” include other co-writes, as well as each of the pair’s individual songwriting efforts, plus a couple of standards, including “I Got It Bad.” Combining pop, folk and jazz elements, the collection charms throughout.
Once perfect strangers, they’re now a perfect couple, finding personal, as well as musical harmony together. They reside in Los Altos.
“Perfect Strangers” debuted at 31 on the iTunes new jazz releases chart, quite an achievement for unsigned artists. It climbed to the Top 10. Through social media and performances, Paolini and Lee are working hard at expanding 23rd Hour’s fan base and developing a higher profile. Backed by a band, they’ll play Angelica’s in Redwood City on Saturday, July 1.
Both coming from the high-tech industry, they are using their knowledge of start-ups to help market their musical brand.
They landed a song in an indie movie. Paolini and Lee have established blog and a KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM radio show, “Bay Area Musician,” which spotlights other local artists. They started a weekly feature — “Wine Wednesdays” — through Facebook and YouTube. The couple samples a Bay Area wine and pairs it with a song. The imaginative efforts have resulted in an impressive email list.
“We want to take our music as far as we can,” Lee says.
Paolini and Lee now have a number of shared interests, including gardening and making furniture and, of course, music.
“We’re both creative and we complement one another,” Paolini says. “Performing together, writing together, creating — that’s so rewarding.”
Email Paul Freeman at paul@popcultureclassics.com.
Music
Who: 23rd Hour
Where: Angelica’s Bell Stage Main Room, 863 Main St., Redwood City
When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday July 1
Seating: $19-$27 (plus $18 food and beverage charge per person); www.angelicasllc.com or 650-679-8184
Artist website: www.23rdhr.com
