MAURA STREPPA

Artist Showcase at Nashville Tour Stop

Wednesday May 24, 2023

@ The Clubhouse at Sonny’s in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

Nashville is a town that’s rich with a vast music scene and a heart that beats through the songwriter.

As such, unique songwriter rounds take over different pockets of the city every night, giving patrons an amazing opportunity to hear songs in their purest form, while allowing the songwriter a platform to try out their newest creations.

By utilizing several renowned spaces around town, Nashville Tour Stop offers a unique dynamic to each of their many weekly rounds by embracing a multitude of atmospheres to create a differing aura at each location.

This week found them back inside The Clubhouse at Sonny’s Patio Pub and Refuge.

One of the three different unique venues within the vibey Germantown hotspot, The Clubhouse invites you in with its cozy living room setting complete with comfortable couches and dim lighting via tabletop lamps, while aptly transforming itself into a true listening room where songs can be experienced.

The NTS lineups this year have already included Kate Hasting, Maddi Poppe, Stephanie Ryann, On The Outside, Page MacKenzie, Chloe Collins, Macy Dot, and more! And this week, Maura Streppa took over the featured spotlight of the 9 o’clock artist showcase.

While a perfect blending of the southern rock grit that’s naturally built into her voice combined with the modern country sensibilities of her earlier songs that helped lay the foundations of her path, she also showcased things still to come by leaning heavily into her folk influences, giving fresh feels to crisp melodies that highlighted the transparency of each song.

As she finished fine-tuning her guitar, Maura gratefully thanked the Nashville Tour Stop for having her on their lineup as well as the several familiar faces for coming out to support her as she opened her half hour set with “Honky Talk,” immediately driving her voice into the strikes of its power as she slid into her attractive grit, pouring confident sass on the lyric that cleverly told of the attributes you better have within you in you’re going to hit on  her at a bar, igniting the rowdy crowd into a sing along moment at the end of the song.

“I wrote this next one about a girl that I’m really jealous of,” confessed Maura. “She’s the kindest, most super talented, and just perfect,” she explained as she softened her natural edge into “Sinner,” adding the perfect emotional tilts into each word of the lyric as she hushed the entire room, gripping them with the raw honesty wrapped into the heart of each line.

With a road worn, folk infusion embedded into the rhythm of “Rolling Stoned,” the homegrown vibe of the feeling good lyric allowed Streppa to intriguingly float the smokiness of her voice atop the ultra-catchy, mid-tempo melody as toes tapped in perfect timing and she knowingly smirked her way through the realness of the lyric while shrugging her shoulders.

Staying squarely in that intriguing folk style, her storytelling expertise shined brightly on “Singer and the Song,” pulling the otherwise ruckus crowd into a second quiet standstill as she held them through the softness of her tonality before lifting her voice to punch the final chorus, eliciting an ovation as she played the final notes on a song she introduced as being so special to her before playing.

Strumming chords into an insatiably, tempo driven southern rock tilt on “Bitches Bitchin’,” Streppa expertly painted the pictures of a gossiping girl’s night in, transporting the crowd straight into a seat around the kitchen table with them while allowing us to spy in on their conversations that night.

“I think this is my favorite song that I’ve written to date because it’s basically an introduction to me,” shared Maura as she slid back into her crafty, folk storytelling to take us through the bold definitions of who she is on “Band Shirts & Bolo Ties,” before closing with “Line Dance,” plowing through the on again/off again lusting flirtatious lyric that cleverly compared the tired back and forth to the one step forward, two steps back of line dancing.

By masterfully fusing her set together with past successes and a snapshot of where she’s at today, Maura Streppa not only gave us a full spectrum view into who she is as an artist and songwriter, but she boldly showed her growth and wherewithal to grab hold of who she truly is and step into a fresh new sound, keeping her signatures well intact to hit the intended target through this sonic shift into her next!

FULL SET LIST
1) Honky Talk
2) Sinner
3) Rolling Stoned
4) Singer and the Song
5) Bitches Bitchin'
6) Band Shirts and Bolo Ties
7) Line Dance

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