COVER STORY
MOLLY O'LEARY
I want to inspire conversations about the topics on this album.
SARAH DONNER
SHARP NOTES By Sean McCarthy
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or some songwriters in the South Coast, creating music can be a cathartic and therapeutic endeavor that comes from being honest and vulnerable. Being queer, genderfluid, or socially marginalized are some of the topics being addressed on albums recently released by local artists. “It’s time to tell the truth and be who you are,” says 41-yearold Sarah Donner of New Bedford, who released “She Makes Waves” in December. “It’s nice to open up to my community. To speak your truth can change your life.” And “She Makes Waves”
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has been an experience of change for Donner. Her 14th full-length album, the eight-song record was a project done in conjunction with the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Museum. The album was originally devoted to songs about local women from the 1800s, but as the project progressed Donner began to have a creative revelation – she began to write about some of the changes she was experiencing in her own life. “With this record I began writing about what I was experiencing on the inside rather than things going on
January 2022 | The South Coast Insider
I began speaking directly to the people I love and people who are in similar situations
Local SONGWRITERS are speaking their truth.
outside,” she says. “During the Covid pandemic there was no daily minutiae to help ignore things that are tugging at your heart, there was no comfort zone. During therapy I began to reclaim my identity as a queer woman and I was able to open up about it, which hasn’t been easy.” But Donner is hopeful, and confident that she is not alone. “I began speaking directly to the people I love and people who are in similar situations, trying to bring forth a positive point of view in terms of coming out and being your
authentic self. I know it’s not just me – eyes are opening. “This album has been an important evolution in my songwriting. I’m taking the reins of my life and it’s something that’s a little scary.”
SINGING STORIES
Molly O’Leary’s “Holding Space” was released in October, a 13-song collection that has earned her comparisons to Alanis Morrissette and Phoebe Bridgers. The album has O’Leary expressing themes such as the addiction struggles of a loved one, her
