Lisa Bodnar is excited, but a little exhausted, as she talks in her Allentown home about \u201cY411.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith writing and constant rehearsing, I\u2019ll give a sigh of relief after the show,\u201d Bodnar says.<\/p>\n
\u201cLisa Bodnar and Whistlegrass Presents Y411\u201d at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Charles A. Brown Ice House, Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want it to be so awesome,\u201d she says. \u201cI love doing this. I hope people will experience something they have never experienced before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The singer-songwriter is preparing a multimedia event with her band Whistlegrass along with a violinist and cellist. She is doing all her own songs, including four that have never been heard before.<\/p>\n
You can expect a lot of emotion in each song, whether in stripped-down versions with minimal accompaniment or with a full band and strings. Bodnar makes them personal and universal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about \u2018why,\u2019\u201d Bodnar says of the concert.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy we do what we do? Kids always ask their parents, \u2018Why?\u2019 They always want to get to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Bodnar, it is a crucial part of self-discovery.<\/p>\n
In \u201cY411,\u201d the \u201cY\u201d represents a crossroads and having to make difficult choices, along with mirroring the word \u201cwhy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c411\u201d is what you dial for directory assistance on the telephone. In other words, it is a request for information, a questioning.<\/p>\n
Adds Bodnar: \u201c\u2019411\u2019 is when we are doing the show [April 11]. I don\u2019t think it is a coincidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe songs reflect the times, what is happening around the country, about what is happening now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
One song asks how we have changed, with \u201cGive me your tired and your poor\/But not anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ancestors came here at some point,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mother gave me notes that my great grandmother made when she came here in 1908. I was inspired by her journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show will have two parts. The first part is about accepting yourself, finding your true self, about loving yourself. The second part is about acceptance of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
The songs bridge both halves:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all fell into place to tell the story. You have to accept your true self to know where you came from, and to find out where others are coming from, to understand why people are doing what they are doing. We should let people be who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
A video will be screened before each part. And during each song, one of Bodnar\u2019s pop art pieces will be displayed on a screen.<\/p>\n
Bodnar will play a grand piano in the concert at the Ice House.<\/p>\n
She will play some songs with her husband Dann Araque on guitar, some as a piano trio, some with the duo and a violinist and cellist, and others with the strings and the Whistlegrass band.<\/p>\n
Bodnar is planning to book \u201cY411\u201d into theaters, and record the songs on one or more albums.<\/p>\n
Bodnar grew up in Fullerton, Whitehall Township, and attended Allentown Central Catholic High School.<\/p>\n
She formed her band in 2018. The name Whistlegrass is derived from the sound one can make breathing on a piece of grass held between one\u2019s fingers.<\/p>\n
She has released three albums: \u201cMaybe I Did,\u201d 2004; \u201cCome Hell or High Water,\u201d 2007, and \u201c40 Years in the Desert,\u201d 2022.<\/p>\n
The musicians for the Ice House concert are: Dann Araque, acoustic and electric guitars; Lisa Bodnar, vocals and piano; Julia Jurkiewicz, cello; Leah McCann violin; Stephanie Reimers, vocals; Shawn Cavanaugh, bass, and Leo Kline III, drums.<\/p>\n
Tickets at the door or www.lisabodnar.com\/shows.<\/p>\n
Lisa Bodnar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisa Bodnar is excited, but a little exhausted, as she talks in her Allentown home about \u201cY411.\u201d \u201cWith…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-160688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}