SARATOGA SPRINGS — When contemplating attending a festival of the magnitude of the 27th Annual Victorian Streetwalk with the idea of maximizing your experience, a little planning is in order.
Once you walk down the center line on Broadway, check in with the reindeer and that white-haired couple that always gets a crowd, you may come to the realization that hey, it’s cold! And there’s a lot of cider, cookies and other indulgences to sample.
Our guide to the Victorian Streetwalk appears on the following pages (14 and 15) and they are chock-full of entertainment choices.
Whether you go for the elegance of choral harmony epitomized by the Racing City Chorus at Adirondack Trust, the irony of reggae-master Lyl Harper reminding us at Mimosa (489 Broadway) that there are holidays in the Caribbean too, or the vamping 60s girl-group Betsy and the ByeGons take on Rudolph and other issues of the day, you really can’t go wrong as long as you know where you are going.
This brings us to Ms. Michelle Lewis, who clearly knows where she is going.
The Boston-based songwriter will be making her sixth Victorian Streetwalk appearance at Saratoga Salsa & Spice Company (398 Broadway) from 6:15-8:15 p.m. and it says here that you should mark your dance card to pay a visit.
“We think of Michelle as family at this point,” said SS&S owner John Knotek, “what I admire is that, frankly, she works her butt off and yet stays true to her music.”
Michelle is consistently engaging, yet not necessarily for the reasons that appear apparent. She’s got the girly-girl exterior with a side of TV news look befitting the girl next door and yet her bio says it all:
"She quotes Homer Simpson before Paul Simon. She prefers Mardi Gras to Earth Day. She drives fast. She throws snowballs. She talks loud, she eats meat, and if you leave the mayonnaise off her sandwich she might try to fight you.”
- MichelleLewisMusic.com
With a second full-length CD set for release last year, plus two EP’s out, Michelle’s been tilling her soil without necessarily stopping to hug the trees.
There have been new highlights recently. From shows as far away as Budapest, Hungary to playing the iconic Club Passim in Boston, to “Getting married,” Michelle says. “I surprised my husband on our wedding day by singing him a new song that I started writing for him the week after we got engaged (I also secretly recorded it just before the wedding. It will be on the new album.”
Even though she delivers her tunes with songbird sweetness, Michelle has been an example of Boston Strong before it became a slogan. The best thing I can say is that she needs to play here more often, and you need to see her when she does.
