She went to college at Northeastern, and went on to a successful career in marketing, including her current position with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the state’s economic development agency for renewable energy projects. She says she “started late’’ as a professional musician.
Now 40 and living in Somerville to stay close to the Boston scene, Black said she has only been pursuing music seriously for five years.
“You’re never too far,’’ she said. “There’s always a chance to make something happen.’’
Hers is not a typical approach to a career based on recording, making the charts, playing on concert tours and local dates in clubs such as the South Shore Folk Music Club in Kingston, where will be performing at 8 p.m. Saturday.
“I had a career, a very good career,’’ she said. The urge to perform “started simply. I’m very ambitious. I like to make things happen. I go after it whole-hearted. I discovered I can write songs.’’
That determination to make things happen helps her to identify with the hard-living characters in her songs. “I believe that we get one chance in life,’’ Black said. “Every day, with everything we do and every decision we make, we’ve got to make it count. Part of making it count is facing up to the truth. . . . That’s what the characters in my songs are trying to do - tell the truth.’’
Backed by her band’s acoustic guitar, fiddle, upright bass, and electric guitar, her songs tell of characters “born from adversity.’’ American roots music concerns itself with “loving, lying, drinking, dying, and going to heaven,’’ Black said. “Sounds kind of sad, but that level of honesty can be refreshing.’’
Roots music artists of varying descriptions have been telling the truth at the South Shore Folk Music Club, a nonprofit all-volunteer organization presenting traditional and contemporary folk and acoustic music programs since 1978.
