If there is one thing singer-songwriter Al Olender is going to do, it’s set a dress code. Saturday’s choice: baby blue, white, and cream to celebrate the end of summer. The Baltimore-born turned Kingston resident headlined her first show at Opus 40 in Saugerties surrounded by fairy lights, dried flowers, and her best friends.
After a beautiful opening set from James Felice of the Felice Brothers, Olender walked on stage and began the show by singing acapella without an introduction. Olender performed with a guitar alongside a full band with backup vocals (and beautiful harmonies) by Amanda Brooklyn, James Felice on keys, Nick Kinsey on the drums, and David Liz playing bass. The set list was a little over an hour, with performances of both new and old songs like “All I Do Is Watch TV” and “Liar Liar” (and even a phenomenal cover of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart”).
Easy Crier, Olender’s confessional debut, walks the listener through stages of grief in a rotation of heart-warming and heart-breaking lyrics that have the power to make you laugh and cry at the same time. In “The Age,” she pens lyrics full of longing and love: “Give me one summer I won’t forget; show me how to dance until my heart goes numb” and my personal favorite, “in my dreams I hold you in the shower, I wake up and all my clothes are soaking wet.”
The heart of an Al Olender show is the emotion, but the details make Olender a star: how grateful she is that people showed up to hear her play (she reiterates this sentiment several times throughout the show) how kind she is to the strangers who come up and talk to her at the end of the show, the careful yet hopeful lyrics, and even down to the consistently delicate stage design with dried flowers tied with string lights by Amanda Brooklyn and Madi Taylor.
Before she plays her last song, she tells the audience that everything she does is for her late older brother Keith–the subject of many of her songs. Olender leads the crowd of almost 200 scattered throughout the lawn on chairs and blankets to sing, “pull yourself together” with her over and over in “Minnesota Waltz.” The show was magical–an expected result of putting several creative geniuses together to put on a show in a historic and breathtaking sculpture park in the mountains of the Hudson Valley.
The entrance to the venue resembles the beginning path of a hike until you see the art hangings throughout the woods lead you to the famous sculpture, stage, and museum. Opus 40 may have originally been an environmental sculpture park, but it has quickly become a staple for the Hudson Valley Music Scene. Once deemed “the best outdoor performance venue in the Northeast” by Rolling Stone, the world-famous sculpture park was created in 1978 over the span of 37 years by artist and professor Harvey Fite. The result was 63 acres of meadows, forest paths, and bluestone leading to a 6.5 acre sculpture. The park has been featured worldwide in the New York Times, Architectural Digest, Vogue, and Vice.
Such a notable and sacred place felt fitting for a show by an artist whose music is so dedicated to honesty and love. The venues she performs in seem to be chosen intentionally, with both providing a cathartic and healing experience. Her last show in the Kingston area, Alentines Day, transformed the Old Dutch Church on a cold February night into an effortlessly magical, sacred, and nearly religious experience. She encouraged attendees to dress in their Valentine’s best–reds, pinks, and white–and to join her and “cry their eyes out.” Upon entering the church at the start of the show, she walked down the aisle while singing and playing guitar to her boyfriend, musician James Felice, in the most main character moment I have ever witnessed in my life. Al assures me that the next Alentine’s Day is already being planned for February of 2024.
Olender–though not born in the Hudson Valley–has found her home in Kingston, and embodies the type of resident that locals hope for: bursting with love, respect, pride, and admiration for the area. She even shouts out local businesses like Rough Draft in Kingston, and thanks restaurant Sylvia in Woodstock for simply being delicious. The show, among many others this summer, was presented by Chosen Family’s Mike Amari. The company’s last production at Opus 40 takes place this Saturday (9/16): a text and sound festival with local presses and live performances. From soundbaths and meditation to puppet shows, improv story slams, and mushroom walks; weekly yoga and Qigong, the diversity of the events is what makes Opus 40 such an iconic space. Al is ending her summer how I hope to: baring her soul for the world to see, and telling everyone in the audience to meet her at Salt Box for the after party.
Join the family! 
