Written by Kathryn F Arbuckle
Two members of the local musical trio ‘Men and Woman’ performed Thursday evening, October 1st, at the annualHarding Literary Festival.
Harding senior Connor McNabb and junior Amber Roe began working together one year ago. They had known each other before, just not in the arena of music.
“Connor and I have always had natural harmonic chemistry,” Roe said, “but last year, I suppose I managed to open the inspirational window lyrically, being that I was writing lyrics, where he was writing music. From that moment on, you simply couldn’t stop us from creating.”
The third member of Men and Woman, junior Josh Badger, plays banjo and keys, but he was unable to attend the festival with his band mates.
At the literary festival, McNabb and Roe performed several original songs, including “Jericho,” “Bleed the Lines” and “I Cues.” Roe described their style as a “folk/soul ensemble of sorts.”
Roe composed the lyrics for “I Cues,” but stated that usually she, McNabb and Badger share the work in every song.
“It’s truly a fusion. We do it all together; sometimes he does the words and I do the melody, and sometimes it’s otherwise,” Roe said.
In addition to original songs, Men and Woman performed well-known tunes such as “16 Tons” by Merle Travis and “Evangeline” by Emmy Lou Harris. Some of their other favorite songs to play are “Oh Sister” by Bob Dylan and “Moonage Daydream” by David Bowie.
Roe said she loves music because “it’s intrinsic, it flows through my veins like the waves that send it to the drums in my head—it’s like sun beams. They pierce even the dimmest days- sound, reverberant sound, a kaleidoscopic symphony pierces like beams of light.”
The literary festival was not the first performance at Harding by Men and Woman; the trio also played at the Wishing Well concert last spring and the Battle of the Bands.
This past summer, Men and Woman created a few “scratch tracks” in a makeshift recording studio and played in San Antonio for some family and friends.
“I’m hoping that we get some legitimate recordings, play some live shows-share the magic,” Roe said concerning her hopes for the future of the band. “You can’t force the music though-you have to let it knock on your door and then open up, open up, open up.”
