erisy watt

People make music for as many reasons as they have for falling in love. Each act is not without risk, not safe or even necessarily rational, and yet there are those who throw themselves into these uncertain waters with a hunger that emboldens the rest of us dithering on dry land with furrowed brows. Bravery, such as this, is poetic. It inspires and conveys far more to its audience than the collection of words on a page or the series of chords in a song. Erisy Watt approaches each performance as an opportunity to raise her flag in unknown territory, to buoy spirits and widen smiles, and like any adventurer, it is her courage as much as her talent that causes passersby to stop, admire, and eventually proceed onto the rest of their day with warmth in their bellies and a hop in their step.

When Erisy straps on a guitar alongside bassist Rafaell Rozendo, the duo puts the same energy into each show regardless of whether they're playing for a frenzied crowd or for an audience of one. Every time, the goal is the same— to reach whoever may be listening, to add beauty and joy to the moment and to those lingering beyond, and to brighten one individual world at a time until everything around them seems just a bit brighter. Erisy and Raf go about this by offering their own hopes and dreams for what the world could be. There is no filter between the artists standing behind the microphones and the artists going about their daily lives. They bring the same passion to playing as they do to creating opportunities for others to play, to connecting the causes they believe in with the people their music speaks to, and whether they're singing beneath a spotlight or howling from within the belly of an airstream trailer, it's clear that they don't press head to pillow until they've done the best they could with each day. Their aspirations are not simple nor are they easily attained, and yet they set after them with the focus that assures those around them that they won't be turned back, that wherever they're going, they're on their way.

As much as regarding the hand-holding of a happy couple conveys hope to the lonesome, listening to the harmonies of Erisy and Raf provides a spectrum of light to those mired in a landscape of grey. While their colorful embrace has already begun to spread in Santa Barbara, it's in the midst of expanding north to their Central Coast sister community of SLO County. Appropriately, they converge upon the Honeymoon Café at the height of summer, and with the help of their equally versatile musical pals Huddy Bali from Big Sur, they are primed to create a new home for themselves in our beloved spot on the coast. For all of us preparing to welcome our new friends to For the Folks, we await them with open arms.