April 19–26, 2001

music picks|rock/pop

Mary Fahl

For a brief time in the mid-’90s, they were Philly’s musical darlings. With a sound both earthy and ethereal, The October Project held listeners rapt, even those usually unmoved by such musical — dare we say it? — loveliness. But behind the scenes things weren’t quite as lovely. October Project was discarded in 1997 by Epic Records after their second album, 1995’s Falling Further In, fell further down the charts than expected.

"We broke up the same day the label dumped us," former lead singer Mary Fahl recalls. "It was not a good time." While she wishes her former band mates well — last year they launched November Project without her (and without much success) — Fahl’s focus is squarely on the future.

"I’m excited about getting back out there and doing shows," the Hoboken, NJ, resident says by phone. "I live for that." A smattering of solo gigs and a successful side career doing "quasi-Arabic-sounding" commercial voiceovers for Audi ads ("some of the best work I’ve ever done," she says without irony), have helped Fahl ready herself for this new phase.

Determined to establish herself as a songwriter, her recent tunes have been penned with Ramsey McLean, best known as Harry Connick’s early lyricist. Fans will recognize her yearning voice — the result of "all those Mary Martin records" she listened to as a kid, she jokes. "It’s a lush, big sound," Fahl says. "Electronica meets Enya, maybe?" Fahl recently released a four-track EP, Lenses of Contact — available via www.maryfahl.com— and is doing a small club tour with her five-member band. Expect to hear mostly new material, but she’ll undoubtedly throw in some chestnuts from her October Project days. "How can I not?" she asks. ‘I mean, if I came to a Mary Fahl show and she didn’t do ‘Ariel,’ I’d be pissed off."

—Nicole Pensiero

Tue., April 24, 7 and 9:30 p.m., $16, at the Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770, www.tinangel.com.