Before she began, Gutjahr held up her two previously released CDs.
“I will play one or two from here, but I’m sort of bored with these songs so I’m actually going to do a lot of new material today,” Gutjahr said. “You know how it is when you’re creative — you have to keep creating.”
Gutjahr played her original songs as part of the gallery’s series of weekly events. She picked songs from across her musical spectrum, with inspiration ranging from her children to the stars in the sky.
Before she began, she joked about some worries she had before the day’s performance.
“I’ve been having a lot of anxiety dreams where I’m supposed to perform and can’t get the sound set up in time — it’s just a big mess and everybody leaves,” Gutjahr said, strumming the guitar. “I’m really grateful there’s no sound to worry about here.”
She then sang her first song, “Along and Away,” accompanied solely by her guitar.
For the next couple of songs, Gutjahr played the keyboard. The two songs had a more subdued tone and a softer flow, which Gutjahr said makes them less ideal for the bars she plays.
“Some of the songs you’re going to hear are the more quiet or intense or reflective songs that you can’t sing in the bars,” Gutjahr said. “I have all these songs that I’ve written and when people need to be psyched up and drinking, they don’t need to hear them.”
The transition between the two songs, which were played in sequence, was seamless.
One of the most emotionally-driven pieces Gutjahr performed was one about her son leaving for college in California. She said the experience did not start as a particularly emotional one; in fact, she said she did not cry like she thought she would.
“I was surprised at how good I felt — I’ve had other people leave before and just been sobbing,” Gutjahr said. “I felt pretty good. I took the dog for a walk and the dog was doing okay, I just thought, ‘You know, this is good. Everything’s going to work out well.’ It was a time for transition.”
She said she then remembered some of the inhibitions her son had before he left and decided to send him a message, which eventually inspired her song, “Love Ya Child.”
“He had told me he was kind of worried about meeting people, and I just remembered him in preschool and how good he was, a very quiet boy but very good with people,” Gutjahr said.
So Gutjahr said she sent her son a text that said, “Ever since the sandbox, you’ve known what to say.” Gutjahr said as soon as she wrote the words, she knew that would serve as the perfect line for her future song.
Mary Hardy, Gutjahr’s neighbor for 13 years, said she could always tell Gutjahr’s songs are original and genuine. She said she and her husband, Richard, attend their friend’s shows regularly.
“Her character shows through in everything she does,” Hardy said.
The most powerful moment of Hardy’s night was the performance of “Love Ya Child,” and Gutjahr wiped tears as she sang about that experience with her son.
“The ones I love the most are when she sings about her boy,” Hardy said. “I can’t get through it without tearing up. I see her as a mother and it’s very characteristic of how mothers feel. It’s very emotional for me to talk about it.”
