Taking the Edge Off at Stage Eighteen

WORDS + PHOTOS / JULIA TRUPP

Local musician Angela Edge performed at Stage Eighteen on Saturday night for the live recording of an upcoming CD. After releasing her most recent album “Burning Paper,” she started working toward a live recording for her musical creations, according to a press release. Edge discussed this idea with the folks behind Stage Eighteen, and they decided to host and bring the idea to life. With the help of Edge’s manager (and advocate wife) Wendy, they booked the show.

The venue’s ability to help local performers shows their love and support for the Fayetteville art and music community, according to a press release.

Edge is a multi-instrumentalist, playing bass, trumpet, guitar, and vocals, and accompanied on stage by percussionist Ty Savell. She also is a songwriter and lyricist who performs her own original indie rock music primarily. “Burning Paper” can be found on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon, according to a press release. Guy Quixote of Boston-based Activate Media reviewed the album as “warm and resonant moments that made me think back to a Tori Amos show a bunch of years ago. At other points, I want to call this white suburban dystopia blues… All in all, I’d say there’s much more here than folk.”

Edge knows how to write. At one point she was in a singer-songwriter email group for six months, writing one song a week. She joined another group afterwards where she wrote monthly songs, so new material isn’t a question in Edge’s lyrical library. One of her songs, “Under,” specifically came from a prompt (fire) in the email group, featuring lyrics that brand the pain felt after living and growing up with heavily religious parents as a member of the LGBT community: “And when you cry out to your god, ‘I did everything I could! Did everything I could!’ / The silence will greet you / Burning deep within your empty womb.”

D-a-m-n.

With other lyrics about healing and changing the world from the perspective of a Syrian refugee seeking a better life, as well as addiction and other trials and tribulations, it’s not hard to become entranced in Edge’s stage presence. Her words are vulnerable and raw, and her musical talent is inspiring.

The comedic transitions between songs (“it’s my swingin’ porch song, so you know it’s gotta be good,” she told the audience about “The Rhythm of It”) went hand-in-hand with the intimacy of the venue, as if each person in the audience was a close friend or relative, and if you weren’t, you were by the end of the night after “Cheers to You.”

For more information about Edge, follow @angelaedgemusic on Facebook and @oxygenedge on Twitter and Instagram. Details about the musician can also be found at her website.