At Seventeen, Alicia Bautista Is Ready
By Arthur Gonick
Saratoga TODAY
SARATOGA SPRINGS – You are hereby invited to hear the future.
A future from a person still so young that she had to be driven to this interview by her parents; from someone so young that she cannot even legally buy a drink at many of the establishments she plays.
Tonight, if you stop in at Bailey’s Café, a young performer named Alicia Bautista will charm and delight you. She will be making her second “pro” gig in this city, but the Queensbury High School soon-to-be-salutatorian has compiled performance credits in the Warren County area that belie her age.
Simply put, Alicia seems incredibly comfortable performing and transmitting that good cheer that audiences find engaging. Something that takes performers decades to perfect, if they ever get it at all.
You can search for a reason why Alicia can perform at this high level and come up with many possibilities. Perhaps it’s because Alicia has an old soul; perhaps a by-product of some good grounding by parents Alex and Susan; perhaps it’s a spiritual nature that she makes a point of emphasizing.
Perhaps it’s the result of losing her fear of performing at age four when she performed “Castle on the Cloud” from Les Miz at age four; combine that with classical, operatic and baroque vocal training from Meredith Reed at Glens Falls Music Academy since the fifth grade and you have a powerful combination.
Perhaps it’s all these things together, with some other factors we are not supposed to define.
“Because of these experiences,” Alicia says, “I never get nervous – I get excited. Nervousness comes to me only when I’m unprepared.”
But then she smiles and says: “But I’m always prepared,” and you believe her. As you do when she confides that she always says a prayer before each performance.
Playing at taverns and bars can constitute a different dynamic altogether. Sometimes the venue can be anything but a listening room. “When that happens, I just keep going. My goal is to get the audience to sing along with me, to make requests that I either know or can learn for next time…in some ways, I like paying for an audience that I don’t know. I relish the challenge of learning something outside my comfort zone… For me, my hook is a love song but basically it’s about what the audience wants to hear.”
She says.
No rock star ego anywhere to be found, but quiet confidence and an understanding of what it takes to be successful. When you hear her say, “It’s all about spreading joy” you forget her age and see the seasoned performer.
With a repertoire of about forty tunes spread through the classics like Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young to the modern day, Alicia has enough in her arsenal to keep most people interested. She also has been getting serious her own song craft and has “three ready to record and two others that are in process” that are likely to be part of tonight’s song lineup.
Nothing in this life is a slam-dunk and Alicia still has many miles to travel; many credits to acquire (not to mention juggling Pharmacy college with a second major in music), but it says here that she has a remarkable skill set; a presence that gives her an excellent chance to do more than survive, but thrive as a musician and performer and make people glad they came to see her for a long time to come.
Close your eyes and hear the future. It sounds pretty sweet.
