Musician Jo Berger played Camp Verde Community Library’s Music in the Stacks concert on Thursday, Feb. 8, with Joe Clyne and Mark Bishop Evans.
Berger grew up in Denver, and spent much of her childhood camping in the mountains and fishing.
“I identify with the mountains and the rivers and the aspen forests of the West,” Berger said. “I’m very connected to the Western environment.”
Berger currently resides in Prescott and said she is inspired by the desert climate of Arizona; she previously lived in Sedona before moving to Prescott for its mountains.
“I love the climate that’s here,” Berger said. “That imagery is found through threading through my songs.”
As a child, Berger’s parents signed her up for piano lessons, but she was always more interested in the guitar that her brother played. She started playing folk songs on guitar, trying numbers by artists like Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, and began writing her own songs in high school.
While in college, Berger was introduced to the world of jazz and fell in love with the chords and melodic structures of jazz standards. Jazz has remained a strong influence on her songwriting, alongside country, folk and Latin styles. Berger has also written songs in Spanish and Italian.
Berger mainly plays original music when performing, but also plays in the Jo B. & Walton Trio with Walton Mendelson and Steve Farina, who offer a mix of covers and originals and focus on playing community events. Farina plays percussion, and Mendelson plays an electronic wind instrument, a type of synthesizer that allows him to play sounds similar to those of a flute, trombone, saxophone and trumpet.
“Because my music is so eclectic, it gives us an opportunity to play all of those different styles of music and for him to change instruments and be able to really enhance, meld and intertwine with my voice, guitar and the melodies of the songs,” Berger said.
Berger said that the library’s Music in the Stacks concert series has created a very engaged and involved community of musicians and music appreciators alike.
“As a singer-songwriter in particular, I really appreciate the opportunity to play in more of a listening room environment, because so much of what informs my music are different narratives and stories,” Berger said. “I want to be able to share those with people in a place where you can talk and engage and the lyrics can actually be heard.”
She added that when she is playing cover tunes, the audience knows where the song is going and often knows the lyrics. With original songs, the audience needs to be able to hear the lyrics and narrative more clearly, which the environment of Music in the Stacks makes possible.
“The process of being a singer-songwriter for me is experiencing different things in my life and then figuring out a way to manifest and put it outside of myself in some form, which is the song, the music and the lyrics,” Berger said. “The lyrics are telling the story and help me to process whatever event or experience led me to feel so strongly about it that I wanted to write a song.”
Berger added that libraries in general are becoming stewards of original music. She hosts a similar series at the Prescott Public Library called the Coffee House Concert Series, which provides the same listening room environment and features musicians from around the region.
“You’re finding that the curators of original music these days in many ways are libraries,” Berger said. “They are a major source of community and bringing people together, opening up your mind and your experiences and expanding the confines of whatever community that you’re living in. I’m very thankful to public libraries and their stewardship of music, particularly original music.”
