Lisa Bastoni has revisited and re-energized her musical career in the last two years. She took ten years away from singing to get a degree and raise a family. We’re glad that the muse hit her again while pushing a baby stroller or late at night after her children were put to bed. Her 2017 release is named after those times, The Wishing Hour. Those ten original songs brought her back to performing and to great acclaim. She was chosen as Emerging Artist at Falconridge Folk Festival, a showcase Artist at North East Regional Folk Alliance, winning awards for her songwriting at places like Rocky Mountain Folk Festival among others.

Lisa has moved to the Northampton area and has several upcoming shows scheduled in the area (as well as the Boston area). We were fortunate to spend an hour together listening to her songs and discussing her songwriting. Our set includes a number of tunes from “The Wishing Hour” like “In This Town”, “It’s the Staying That Hurts”, and “Wichita”.

We were fortunate to be able to hear a whole batch of soon to be released songs in this session. We heard versions of “Walk a Little Bit Closer”, “Beautiful Girl”, and “Nearby” among others. It was a pleasure to get to know Lisa while talking about a variety of subjects including busking, her Grandmother’s influence, and the new music series that Lisa is curating for the Montague Book Mill.