On Stage: Mindy Rhodes transcends genres

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times

Mindy Rhodes is a versatile performer whose music transcends genres. She has performed in nightclubs as a jazz vocalist with a backing band, at smaller venues with her solo cabaret act and frequently at area restaurants with a duo line-up.

For years, Rhodes has been a regular attraction at General Warren Inne (Old Lancaster Highway, Malvern, 610-296-3637, www.generalwarren.com) and more recently a performer with a monthly gig at the Duling-Kurtz House (146 South Whitford Road, Exton, 610-524-1830, www.dulingkurtz.com).

On April 13, Rhodes will bring her show of warm, heartfelt music to the General Warren Inne and she will perform on April 14 at the Duling-Kurtz House.

“At the General Warren Inne, I play two months on and one month off,” said Rhodes, during a phone interview Wednesday evening from her home in Marshallton. “I play the Duling-Kurtz about once a month.”

Rhodes’ resume includes a pair of solo albums – “Whisper Wind” and “Blush” — as well as a stint as the vocalist for the band 9 Steps Down. She was a piano performance major at Penn State University with voice as her second instrument.

“I did solo classical recitals when I was at Penn State,” said Rhodes, who attended Hillsdale Elementary School, West Chester Henderson High and Westtown School. “I won a concerto competition my senior year and performed with the Penn State Philharmonic.

“When I was at Penn State, I also started playing coffeehouses and singing my own material – no cover tunes — just my own songs. It took me a while to learn the coordination of singing and playing. My early stuff was pretty raw.”

After living in Hawaii and California for a while, Rhodes returned to Pennsylvania in 1999 and released her debut LP a year later. In 2001, Rhodes released “Blush”, which was recorded live at the Dilworthtown Inn.

Rhodes now is slowly working on her third album.

Rhodes is actually a multi-tiered artist — a veteran singer-pianist-songwriter and a top-flight floral artist.

She is also a woman enjoying life in a country home — sharing that life with her fiancé John, her horse White Spike, three dogs, three cats, two miniature donkeys, a fish, a rabbit and six chickens.

“My full-time work is flowers – weddings, funerals, special occasions – and teaching music classes,” said Rhodes, who will have her own Quaker wedding in October

“I teach piano lessons for beginners. I love working with children. Recently, I raised almost $1,500 donating a class to Francis Vale Animal Rescue.”

It is Rhodes’ sense of melody and rhythm – and her smooth, expressive voice – which has allowed her to develop a legion of fans throughout the Delaware Valley.

“My audience is pretty diverse,” said Rhodes, who cites Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand and Nina Simone as influences. “I have a lot of repeat customers.

“I love performing at the General Warren and at Duling-Kurtz,” said Rhodes. “They are great places to play and the people there are wonderful. I play jazz standards, blues classics and original songs – a little bit of everything.

“My shows at the General Warren Inn are usually duos with Bill Schilling, who plays bass and piano. When I’m singing and playing piano, he’s on bass. When he shifts to piano, I concentrate solely on vocals.

“Playing with people frees me up to do different styles. When I’m not focusing on several things at once, I can concentrate on my singing. I’m enjoying it now more than ever because the pressure isn’t so intense.

“When I’m playing and singing, I try to crawl inside the song. It has to be something that means something to me. When I write songs, I look to give myself comfort and to give comfort to the listeners.”

Rhodes is a versatile artist whose creative realm includes painting and floral arranging as well as music. Samples of her work can be seen at her websites  —www.whisperwindstudio.com and www.mindyrhodes.com.

On May 6, Rhodes will perform at the Thornbury Farm Market and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) “Bands and Bonfire Benefit (http://www.thornburyfarmcsa.com/bonfire.php).”

The event, which runs from 4-10 p.m., also features Younger than Charlie and the Bravo Theatre Company along with a silent auction and a display of antique cars from the Chester County Antique Car Club.

Video link for Mindy Rhodes – https://youtu.be/xdMdE_pVlFU.

Rhodes will perform at the General Warren Inne on April 13 from 6-10 p.m. and at the Duling-Kurtz House on April 14 from 6-9 p.m. There is no cover charge for either show.

Back in November, Sundara Karma made its area debut with a show at the Foundry at Fillmore Philadelphia (1100 Canal Street, Philadelphia, 215-309-0150,www.thefillmorephilly.com) as part of the “BBC Presents Sundara Karma, Spring King and Izzy Bizu USA Tour.”

Now, the young English band is returning to Philadelphia for another show at the same venue. Then highly-touted quartet will share the bill with 888 and Coast Modern at The Foundry on April 13.

Sundara Karma means “beautiful karma” in Sanskrit. The band, which features Oscar Pollock (vocals/guitar), Haydn Evans (drums), Dom Cordell (bass) and Ally Baty (guitar), is based in Reading, England.

“That tour in the winter was a good introductory tour,” said Pollock, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon as the band travelled through Connecticut on the way to a radio gig.

“The shows were a lot smaller than what we’re used to in the U.K.

“It’s nice to be able to come over to the states and play smaller venues. In the U.K., we’re playing arenas. It can get boring playing the same kind of shows all the time. The stateside tours are also good for us because we’re winning new fans while supporting other acts.

“With this tour, we’re alternating headliners so I’m not sure everyone there is coming to see us. But, I think we are starting to get known in the states. We’re getting more recognition.”

Late last year, Sundara Karma released an EP titled “Loveblood” exclusively in America via Bee & El/Sony RAL. The band released its debut album, “Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect,” earlier this year on the same label.

Sundara Karma’s new single “She Said” made a strong debut securing major radio airplay as the #1 most added at Alternative Radio on its first radio impact week.

“We all grew up together in Reading,” said Pollock. “It’s been very organic. We started when we were 13 and became Sundara Karma when we were 14. When we were 15, we were working on our first recording.”

According to Pollock, “Loveblood” is “inspired by Oscar Wilde’s short story ‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime.’ The story is a mystery about the unexplainable, and that theme has a huge inspiration in our music.”

Dealing in anthemic guitar music with soaring choruses, brooding romanticism and a sense of euphoric uplift, Sundara Karma has already established a dedicated cult fan base, sold-out shows up and down the UK and opened the main stage at Reading Festival in 2016.

“Our album has been done for a while,” said Pollock. “We sat on it for a little bit. We didn’t want to rush things. We had been writing songs for a few years prior to the album. I tend to do most of the writing.

“We recorded it about a year ago. Most of the album was done in Berlin. We went there because we heard it was a very creative hub. It was very appealing to us.

“There is so much culture there. We wanted to get that feeling with our recording. Some of the album was also done in England – Oxford, London and Brixton. And, we did one track on a boat – a big red boat.”

Sundara Karma’s music has a spacey, euphoric feel in many of the songs – not surprising considering the band’s influences.

“Some of our main influences are Pink Floyd, the Doors, The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division,” said Pollock. “We like spacey, psychedelic music.

“In our live show, we play the songs pretty much as they were recorded. They haven’t really gone through any changes on stage. After this tour, we’ll go home and start playing festivals.”

Video link for Sundara Karma —https://youtu.be/aRORIKvOR4Y.

The show at The Foundry, which also features 888 and Coast Modern, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.

The Ladybug Festival is an annual celebration of women in music that is held every July in Downtown Wilmington in July – a festival that features a wide array of very talented female artists.

Fortunately, area music fans will not have to wait until July to see two of the best acts that have performed at Ladybug in recent years — Nalani & Sarina and Rachael Sage.

On April 14, Ladybug Festival producers, Gable Music Ventures, are bringing them together for an intimate night at the World Café Live at the Queen (500 North Market Street, Wilmington, 302- 994-1400, www.worldcafelive.com).

Nalani & Sarina are 23-year-old twin sisters from central New Jersey who have been leaving a trail of ardent fans in their wake whenever they perform.

The highly-talented siblings have already established themselves as top-flight vocalists, songwriters, and multi-instrumentalists.

“We’ve bene dong a lot of shows this month,” said Nalani, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from their New Jersey home. “We’ve been hopping all over the place – covering new ground.”

Nalani & Sarina have been building a huge fan base in the Mid-Atlantic region for the last four years. They have performed at several venues around the area including Kennett Flash, the Eagleview Concert Series in Exton, the Queen in Wilmington, the Puck in Doylestown, and, earlier this week, MilkBoy Philadelphia.

“The area we’ve been playing stretches from Boston to Washington, D.C.,” said Sarina. “And, we’ve done gigs in L.A. each of the last two summers. We keep expanding our territory.

“We’ve been doing a lot of Sofar shows in and around New York City. It stands for ‘sounds from a room.’ They’re pop-up shows to a completely new audience – young music-lovers in their 20s. They’re held in different parts of New York City from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village. New York has a very cool type of audience.

“We write songs for people in their 20s. One of our songs is about trying to find work after graduating from college. Another one is about how an old friend who hadn’t seen in a long time came to see us play and how we inspired him to pursue a career in music. We’re writing about people our age – observing other people’s stories.

“It’s like stories about kids’ lives from their early to late 20s – love, first relationships, work. The songs are about what life is like for people our age. But, people of all ages can relate to these songs. We’ve had older people tell us that they can identify with these songs.”

When Nalani & Sarina are not performing on stage, they’re hard at work in the recording studio,

“We’ve been working in the studio a lot lately,” said Nalani. “We’ve been recording a lot. We’re taking a pretty relaxed approach — doing it piece-by-piece…song-by-song.

“There are no deadlines. What’s great about that is that we don’t have to force creativity and that makes it a lot less stressful. We’ve been recording at Carriage House Studio in Stamford, Connecticut and at the home studio in Wayne (PA) or our engineer Julian Herzfeld.”

With roots based in rhythm-and-blues, soul, rock and especially funk, the sisters create vocal harmonies that only twins can make.

“We’re identical twins,” said Nalani. “We graduated early from Hunterdon Central High a few years ago and we’ve been doing music ever since.

“We both started playing classical piano when were six and then studied operatic vocals when we were in sixth grade.

“Classical music and opera provided good basics for us. Our mom was a folkie so we listened to a lot of folk music when we were young — great songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. And, we’ve listened to a lot of classic rock.

“We always have the funk. It’s impossible for us to keep the funk out. We’ve always had funk in our blood. We play shows with just the two of us, it always sounds more singer-songwriter. When we do shows with our band, it gets more funky.

“For the show this Friday, we won’t have our band with us. We’ll be performing as a duo. But, the funk will still be there.”

Video link for Nalani & Sarina – https://youtu.be/OMe0lVy6eMM.

Rachael Sage released her new album “Choreographic” last May on Mpress Records. Since then, she has been hitting the road in support of the well-received disc.

With nearly 10 million YouTube views and 12 full-length albums, Sage is one of the busiest touring artists in independent music. She performs more than 100 shows a year — both solo and with her band, The Sequins.

“I’ve been very busy – all good stuff,” said Sage, during a phone interview Wednesday evening from her home in New York City. “I just got back from a nine-week tour overseas – four weeks with Beth Hart and five weeks with Howard Jones.

“Now, I’m back – recovering from Passover with my folks. I’m excited about this show in Delaware. I was invited by Nalani & Sarina to do the show. I adore them. They’re great musicians and really nice people.”

Sage is like a modern-day Renaissance woman — singer-songwriter, ballerina, pianist, poet, record label owner, actress, organist, writer and record producer. Currently, she is focused on being a performer.

“I recorded the album in August 2015,” said Sage. “It went pretty quickly.”

On “Choreography,” Sage reconnects to her dance roots. The album is an inspired set of piano-based chamber pop sounds merging orchestral elements with her signature blend of folk, pop and rock.

“I got the idea to do a dance-themed concept album,” said Sage, who studied and danced professionally with the New York City Ballet when she was younger and then went on to get a degree in theater at Stanford University.

“The TV show ‘Dance Moms’ had used a lot of my music with its choreography. Maddie Ziegler kept using more and more of my songs in her dance routines.

“I thought about how ballet and my experiences in ballet had informed my influences. I holed myself up in a hotel in London. Each day, I wouldn’t leave until I had at least one song written. It’s always exciting when it gets done as something different.

“When I was writing the songs in London, I watched the Glastonbury Festival on TV. I had a keyboard and also wrote some on guitar. It was mostly on piano because I was writing more with an orchestral sensibility.

“In general, I usually write the lyrics and the melody at the same time. There were certain musical themes that developed as I wrote. My process is very subconscious at that point. All my channels were open.

“Producer Andy Zulla, who I had worked with before, said he’d like to work with me again. I recorded the bulk of the songs with him at Carriage House Studio in Connecticut. It’s a rustic environment. It’s kind of a retreat for me. There is such a great energy there.”

Once the album dropped, the songs from “Choreography” changed from studio offerings to rousing live onstage versions.

“If they’re not playable live, I make them playable live,” said Sage, whose expressive voice instinctively wraps itself around her well-thought lyrics. “Being a production head, I can work with songs. But, it can be a challenge at times.

“In my live shows, I have a wonderful accompanist – Kelly Halloran. She is a very talented violin player who has been with me for about five years. Right now, I’m still focusing on songs from ‘Choreography’ and also playing songs from my new EP.”

Sage recently released a new EP of protest songs, “The Tide.” The five-track disc adds her voice to the current worldwide protests and public demonstrations.

All net proceeds from the EP will be donated to ArcLife.org (American Refugee Committee), one of the world’s leading international refugee assistance organizations.

“The songs are political protests and songs about human rights,” said Sage. “‘The Tide’ was inspired by a photo of Elie Weisel after helping Syrian refugees.”

Elie Wiesel is an Auschwitz Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner who died last year at the age of 87.

“The way things are going now, protest songs are important,” said Sage. “They need to be made and artists have that job.”

Video link for Rachael Sage – https://youtu.be/HPSvrD_nE8c.

The show at the Queen, which has Kira Alejandro, as the opener, will start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10.

Another act from across the Atlantic will be performing in Philly this weekend. On April 14, Celtic Woman will bring its internationally-acclaimed show to the Academy of Music (Broad and Locust streets, Philadelphia, 215-731-3333, www.kimmelcenter.org).

The Grammy Award-Nominated group just embarked on a 91-city world tour to perform songs from its new best-selling album “Voices of Angels.”

“Voices of Angels” (Manhattan/Caroline) debuted at Number 1 on

Billboard’s World Albums chart to become the group’s 12th consecutive Number 1.

The album, which was recorded with the 72-piece Orchestra of Ireland, also debuted in the top slot of Billboard’s Classical Albums chart.

The current group’s line-up features a trio of top-flight vocalists — Susan McFadden, Mairéad Carlin, Éabha McMahon – along with new Celtic violinist Tara McNeill.

The four ladies are accompanied by an ensemble that includes Irish dancers, bagpipers and a full band playing an array of traditional Irish instruments.

Celtic Woman has a remarkable 12-year-legacy of introducing the most talented singers and musicians from Ireland onto the world stage.

The group’s fusion of traditional Irish music and contemporary songcraft celebrates Ireland’s history while reflecting the vibrant spirit of modern Ireland. The group’s repertoire encompasses Irish classics, contemporary songs, classical favorites and stirring originals.

The lineup of performers has evolved in the years since the group’s inception, but the signature sound of Celtic Woman has remained consistent, showcasing the members’ individual and collaborative talents. Since its inception in 2004, the group has had 14 different members.

“I’m in my fourth year with Celtic Woman,” said Mairéad Carlin, during a phone interview last week from a tour stop in Providence, Rhode Island.

“I had gotten a call from Ireland America to sing at a charity gig in New York. I was just chilling with a fellow at the show and he asked for my card.

“I didn’t know at the time that he worked for Celtic Woman. When Chloë Agnew left the group, they called me to come to Dublin to audition for David Downes.”

Celtic Woman’s story is like a tale about a couple celebrating its silver wedding anniversary 25 years after going out on what both parties expected to be “just one date.”

In 2004, David Downes, who previously had been the musical director of the Irish stage show “Riverdance”, assembled a group of five Irish musical artists for a television special.

Downes looked at the success of the touring Irish stage shows “Riverdance” and “Lord of the Dance” and decided to mount a similar show without the dance. So, he put together a show focusing on the talents of lovely female singers and a lively female violinist.

“I was very familiar with Celtic Woman. I grew up listening to their music. Celtic Woman is one of the only groups that brings Irish music to the world stage. It feels great to bring this treasure to people.”

Video link for Celtic Woman — https://youtu.be/HsCp5LG_zNE.

The show at the Academy of Music will start at 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $43-$103.

With acts from England and Ireland performing in Philadelphia over the next few days, it’s only fair that Scotland should also be represented.

And, it will be when Biffy Clyro headline a show at the Theatre of the Living Arts (334 South Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1011, http://www.lnphilly.com) on April 14.

The band was touring in support of its freshly-released album “Opposites,” which was released in the states on 14th Floor Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records.

That was the last stateside tour for Biffy Clyro, a trio from Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire featuring Simon Neil (guitar, lead vocals) and twin brothers James Johnston (bass, vocals) and Ben Johnston (drums, vocals), still lives in Scotland.

“We toured America after the release of ‘Opposites’ and then we burned out a little,” said Johnson, during a recent phone interview from his home in Scotland.

“We had to take a little break from touring and recording. We were always in the studio so we just broke the mold a bit. We finally got to start over in 2015.”

After a bit of needed “R&R,” Biffy Clyro began writing and recording. The result was the band’s tasty new album “Ellipsis.”

Released by Warner Bros. Records/14th Floor Recordings in July, “Ellipsis” went straight to number one in the U.K. album chart and was also number one in Switzerland, Germany and Ireland.  It remained in the U.K. Top 40 for 11 weeks before claiming the top spot on the album chart, making it Biffy Clyro’s second Number 1 album.

“We spent six months in the studio altogether,” said Johnson. “We got on board Rich Costey to produce it. He’s Death Cab for Cutie’s producer. We went to Burbank with six or seven songs with all parts done. Rich had already come to Scotland for pre-production.

“We recorded the vocals first on some of the songs. We’ve never ever done that. It was a bit of an eye-opener. It was very different for me as a drummer. I had to wait until the end.

“It was a way to try to force a tune. If you have a good melody, you have a good song – and then you try to find a way to decorate it by adding drums and guitar.

“We actually have a whole other album of music coming out – B-sides that were recorded in the session while making ‘Ellipsis.’ It’s more a rock album. It shows that we had a lot of ideas.”

The band operates out of Glasgow but is still based in Kilmarnock.

“We still practice there,” said Johnson. “For a while now, we’ve had our own studio at a working farm. It’s a nice place to be to get away from the music industry. Simon writes all the songs and he does that at home. Then, we start to work up the songs in the practice room.”

With seven albums from which to draw songs, assembling a set list for shows can be a challenge for Biffy Clyro.

“I don’t know what the set list will include,” said Johnson. “Some people will be seeing us for the first time so we should tip our hat to earlier records. We’ll do songs from all the way back to ‘Blackened Sky,’ which was our first album in 2002.”

Video link for Biffy Clyro – https://youtu.be/8r-WbSan6D0.

The show at TLA, which has O’Brother as the opening act, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25.

The wide array of acts playing in Philly on April 14 includes a progressive funk-rock band from Nashville, a full-tilt rock band from Austin, and an indie-rock band from New York.

The full-tilt rock band from Austin, Texas is Sweet Spirit – a genre-spanning group that will headline a show at the Dawson Street Pub (100 Dawson Street, Philadelphia, 215-482-5677, http://www.dawsonstreetpub.com).

The band’s current core members are Sabrina Ellis, Andrew Cashen, Joshua Merry, Jake Knight, Jon Fichter and Danny Lion and members added in 2015 are Cara Tillman, Leslie Matthews and Samuel Protich Rives.

Ironically, the nine-piece band started as a solo project.

Ellis was going through some distressing times. Bobby Jelaousy, the band that she fronted for several years with her then husband was disintegrating along with their relationship.

Everything Ellis was working toward was suddenly in free-fall. So, she started Sweet Spirit to hone her ability to write and perform on her own.

When Ellis initiated Sweet Spirit, she was still writing and performing with her longstanding garage punk band A Giant Dog. AGD Co-founder Andrew Cashen was intrigued by Ellis’ new emphasis on soul and country and pop music as touchstones for Sweet Spirit and quickly climbed on board the project.

“It started as an outlet for me – an outlet for my songs that weren’t punk rock,” said Ellis, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.

“It was the first time I had to take my songs to a band – people that I didn’t know and didn’t have a long history of working with.”

It required a different writing focus for Ellis.

“Before songs hit a band, they’re pretty similar with melody and lyrics,” said Ellis. “It was a pretty slow evolution for me to do songs that were longer than two-and-a-half to three minutes.

“This new record – ‘St. Mojo’ — has some four-and-a-half minute songs. Part of me wonders if there is a place for longer songs with all the ADD going on. Most of the Sweet Spirit songs are mid-tempo.”

There is a local connection for Sweet Spirit. The band’s “St. Mojo” album was produced by Los Lobos sax player Steve Berlin, who grew up in nearby Abington.

“I loved working with Steve Berlin,” said Ellis. “He wasn’t afraid of a long solo. Taking those levels of risk really helped. We recorded the album last March – right after SXSW.

“We took five days off after SXSW and then tore into the project. We had played a lot of shows at SXSW and we were lean – we were lean and tight.

“Our live show is mostly songs from ‘St. Mojo’ along with four or five favorites from earlier records. Both our albums – ‘Cokomo’ and ‘St. Mojo’ – have the quality of being versatile. They have songs that sound different from each other.”

Video link for Sweet Spirit – https://youtu.be/nRKWzT6PLY0.

The show at the Dawson Street Pub, which has The Burgeoning as the opener, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.

The progressive funk-rock band from Nashville is Backup Planet – a group that is billed as “high-energy, experimental rock/funk band.”

On April 14, Backup Planet will headline a show at MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 215- 925-6455, www.milkboyphilly.com).

The band is a versatile quartet featuring Ben Cooper, Gavin Donati, Blake Gallant, and Chris Potocik – a foursome with its roots in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Backup Planet plays music that blends elements of jazz, funk, roots, blues, electronic, and progressive rock into a fusion that has also has pop, 70s-style rock and funk, high-energy improv and heavy metal in its DNA.

“I met Gavin in 2009,” said Cooper, during a phone interview Monday afternoon from Nashville. “We played for a while at U.T. (University of Tennessee) and went through several drummers and bassists. At the end of 2012, we decided to take it seriously. We tried a number of bassists who didn’t fit. So, I played key bass for a while until we got Blake at the end of 2014.”

Cooper (keys, vocals), Potocik (drums, vocals), Donati (guitar, vocals), and Gallant (bass, vocals) released their full-length debut “Element’ in 2015.

Things were moving in a positive direction for Backup Planet – until they flipped around.

“We had a vanb accident in June 2015,” said Cooper. “We were playing a string of dates in the Midwest and were heading to a festival. We were leaving Chicago on an overpass and the next thing we knew, our van was flipped over on the interstate sliding sideways.

“There was glass everywhere. A guy driving 90 mph crazy drunk hit us in the back of our trailer. We lost our van, our equipment and our trailer. But, we didn’t lose our lives. So, we just pulled together and started rebuilding.”

Backup Planet worked hard and got its career back on track. On March 31, the quartet released its sophomore album “Reactions.”

“The van crash and what happened afterwards – that’s what the recent album is thematically about,” said Cooper. “It’s about the experience. It’s about not focusing on trivial matters.

“When a crash like that happens, at first there is the bewilderment of being in a wreck and then you get angry and upset. Then, it comes full circle about picking up life. And then, there is a sense of gratitude.

“The song ‘Lookin’ Up’ talks about being alive and being happy for what you did do and what you might do. The song ‘All In’ tells you to ‘just go for it.’ Making this album was a good experience.”

Video link for Backup Planet – https://youtu.be/PkH8neJ8aFg.

The show at Milkboy, which also features The Heavy Pets, will start at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.

The indie-rock band from New York is Stolen Jars, which is headlining a show on April 14 at The Pharmacy (1300 South 18th Street, Philadelphia

Stolen Jars is a socially-conscious band featuring the nucleus of Cody Fitzgerald, Molly Grund, Sarah Coffey and Matt Marsico. Other “associate members” are Peter Enriquez, Max Finkelstein, Connor McGuigan and Grant Meyer.

“There are five or six members at any given time,” said Fitzgerald, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “We’re doing a small tour right now. We’ll do a longer tour in July – a loop through the Midwest.”

The band began small and continued to grow.

“It started as my vehicle,” said Fitzgerald. “I started writing songs for the first album when I was in high school. I graduated from Montclair High in North Jersey in 2011.

“There was a big music scene in Montclair when I was in high school. A lot of bands grew out of that scene. Molly, who is also from Montclair, has been with me in the band the longest.

“I went to college at Brown University and Molly went to Wesleyan. We kept the band going and added people over the years. There have been a few different iterations of our live band.”

On April 7, Stolen Jars released its new EP, “glint.”

According to Fitzgerald, “A glint is a shimmering reflection of light and, at the end of the day, that is really what this EP is — a small 16-minute moment of reflection.

“It is five songs centered around themes of loss and renewal, songs about finding hints of memory in the present and trying to keep sight of them just long enough to let them go.”

The “glint” EP breaks apart into different visual interpretations. Each track on the EP plays alongside a composition from different video artists, animators, choreographers, and directors – Evelyn Ross for “Eliot,” Jenelle Pearring and Nora Alami for “Gold Age,” Abie Sidell and Felix Handte for “Long New York,” Marissa Goldman and Blaine Dunkley for “Gone Away,” and Henry Chaisson for “Afterlight.”

“I wrote ‘glint’ as my thesis at school,” said Fitzgerald. “For the visuals, all were friends or friends of friends. I’m still surprised we were able to get all these amazing people to help us. We’ve only released two of the five videos so far – ‘Eliot’ and ‘Long New York.’ ‘Gone Away’ is next.”

Video link for Stolen Jars — https://youtu.be/XoWLYH9TQQo.

The show at The Pharmacy, which will also include Tall Friend, Teen Spaceship, and Poppy Patica, will start at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $12.

Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) will have Better Than Bacon Improv Comedy on April 13, “First Impression – A Progressive Classic Rock Tribute” on April 14, and The Melton Brothers and Dan May on April 15.

The Steel City Coffee House (203 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, 610-933-4043, www.steelcitycoffeehouse.com) will host The Odyssey with Double Suede and Katie Dale on April 14.

The Colonial Theatre (Bridge Street, Phoenixville, 610- 917-1228, www.thecolonialtheatre.com) will host “Two Funny Guys” on April 15.

The Keswick Theater (291 N. Keswick Avenue, Glenside, 215-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com) presents Leela James on April 13 and The Musical Box on April 15.

The Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) will host The Weight Band: Playing Songs of The Band on April 13, The Land Of Ozz (The Ultimate Ozzy Experience) on April 14, Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre Band on April 15 and Paul McKenna & Andrew Finn Magill on April 19.