Ongoing Songwriter Series at The Bunker gives musicians from far and wide a chance to share their stories

Thanks to The Bunker Performance Loungs and Café’s growing reputation as an intimate and unique performance venue, both emerging and established singer-songwriters have been flocking to Stratford to share their stories and perform their original music as part of The Bunker’s ongoing Songwriter Series.

Following the success of The Bunker’s winter, spring and summer songwriter series earlier this year, venue owner John Crawford decided to continue inviting songwriters to perform on the last Friday of every month this fall. With one more performance to go for the fall series – this one on Nov. 29 featuring singer-songwriters Melissa Dutch, Odd Marshall and Mitch Szitas – the model has proven successful for the musicians who perform and the locals who come to listen.

“We’ve been running it for about a year now and it’s similar to what we do every single Friday where we have original singer-songwriters in to showcase their original songs,” Crawford said. “Normally, we would have the odd cover set in because people love covers, but then we thought last year it would be kind of a  nice idea to reserve one Friday (every month) just for all originals; something people can kind of rely on where they can come hear music they can’t hear anywhere else, and songs that artists aren’t really able to perform anywhere else.”

Earlier this year, Crawford said The Bunker changed the format of the Songwriter Series slightly to be more of a writers’ round. Since then, the shows have featured three unique singer-songwriters, each of whom take turns playing original songs and sharing the stories behind those songs. The intimate atmosphere of the venue, Crawford said, encourages the artists to interact with the audience during the show, and vice versa.

The shows are also “pay-what-you-can,” allowing Crawford and the team at The Bunker to pay the musicians for their sets without putting up too much of a financial barrier for those who want to come and listen to music from artists they may have never listened to before.

And attracting new talent every month hasn’t been an issue at all. According to Crawford, The Bunker’s reputation as a niche venue welcoming of all artists has spread across the region and beyond, and musicians are lining up to perform there.

That’s how Dutch, a singer-songwriter from Hamilton, heard about the Stratford venue.

“There’s a lot of colleagues that I have who have been participating at The Bunker, so I heard about it kind of through the grapevine here in Hamilton – there’s even whispers here about what they’re doing,” Dutch said.

The emerging artist describes her music as a mixture of the hard-hitting pop and alternative work of artists like Lady Gaga and Florence & The Machine, and the heartfelt, soulful music of Sarah McLachlan and Adele. Her powerful vocals are also influenced by the work of jazz singers Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

“I have a single that’s going to be coming out on Dec. 6 called ‘All Out Of The Blue,’ and it was recorded live off the floor at Park Street Gasworks in Hamilton with my live band,” Dutch said. “It has some jazz sensibilities and it’s like a moody, warm ballad about unrequited love at Christmas time.”

Dutch said she will perform her new single ahead of its official launch at The Bunker at the Nov. 29 Fall Songwriter Series finale, which begins at 8 p.m., and she’s excited to share the story behind that song with a Stratford audience.

For more information about the Songwriter Series and other performances at The Bunker Performance Lounge & Café, visit www.bunkerstratford.com.