Ghetto Song Bird

by Deesha Dyer

Rock/pop

Getting booed at the Apollo Theater in Harlem is enough to send some aspiring performers into hibernation — like forever. For North Philly native Ghetto Song Bird, the rejection wasn't a mortal wound. "That was tough, but it motivated me to educate black people about rock and that it came from the ghettos and bayous. Rock is our history."

Armed with an electric guitar, Ghetto Song Bird expresses herself with a rock style that emulates the sounds of the '60s and '70s. "Ghetto is perceived as bad, and a songbird is seen as beautiful. Good things do come from the ghetto," the twentysomething singer-songwriter says. "Some people get me and some people don't."

When she took her talent out of the basement and to the clubs, people weren't particularly open-minded, she says. "When I attended open mics, neo-soul was the big thing, so no one knew where to place me. I tried to write soul music, and it always came out rock. Places wanted to turn the sound on my guitar down and just have me sing."

Ghetto Song Bird traveled to Los Angeles and New York with a songbook and a guitar, looking for outlets and creative adventure. She dropped a self-titled EP that generated some buzz on the independent circuit. But she missed home.

When she got home, she found things had changed for the better. She found a new acceptance with audiences and a community of like-minded sisters doing it for themselves. Now working on her full-length debut, due out this summer, Ghetto Song Bird stays optimistic and focused. "I want to connect with people, and sing about what we all go through: social issues, relationships, love, everything that provokes emotions. I know that this is my mission."

Thu., March 31, 9 p.m., $10, with Stiffed, Kameelah Waheed and Government Cheese, The Five Spot, 5 S. Bank St., 215-574-0070.