For The Sake Of The Song: Rebecca Roubion, Hannah Miller, and Levi Weaver @ The High Watt Tonight.

I turned 30 on Friday. I was told by some friends that now, I’m supposed to hate loud music and embrace the fact that spicy food might aggravate my ulcers. Well, I still do like loud music. However, there comes a time when it’s not the volume that counts—it’s the quality of the song, no matter how loud or soft. This show is all about that concept—embracing the song for its texture, its lyrics, its structure, its emotion and its message. As a special treat for the listeners, each artist has chosen a song by Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice to cover for tonight’s show.

2012 was certainly a breakout year for Rebecca Roubion. Her Kickstarter campaign was able to raise enough money to help finance the release of her first EP Fields. After 1000 copies of Fields have been bought, she’ll release the “sister” EP Forests. She celebrated the release of Fields at the Basement on November 29, 2012.  That momentum continues into 2013, as her Southeast tour titled “Make Up Your Mind,” with CherryCase (Jake Etheridge), kicks off this Wednesday, January 23 at the Rutledge. Tonight, let’s celebrate delicately crafted songs such as “Falliday.” Listen below:

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Hannah Miller’s music is described as pop/soul, but I can’t separate one from the other. Those two words, those two sounds, and those two genres seem perfectly interwoven in her music. The dynamic builds and the layering of instrumentation in Miller’s songs are rampant, moving and ear-tingling. And Miller’s voice is like a a soulful microscope, enhancing the clarity of the image through music. Check out the song “The Reason Why” below:

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Levi Weaver has a musical style that focuses on carefully selected lyrics—sometimes posing introspective and existential questions to his listener. A good example of this is the song “The String Theory,” which I thoroughly enjoyed listening to. This song doesn’t follow the verse/chorus formula, but then again his style doesn’t lend itself to that sort of formulaic approach. Check out his album The Letters of Kurt Godel in full below:

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For the sake of the song, you should consider coming tonight. If you like good songs that is. And it’s free! Doors at 7 pm.