Deb Felz: singer, guitarist and songwriter
I never know where I am going to find my recipients. Today I found Deb at the Potbelly’s where she was playing guitar. It’s cool that Potbelly’s has musicians in there. It’s not a place that you would expect to hear some great local talent, but Deb is pretty awesome.
I ordered their Uptown Salad and headed over to a table. I was pretty sure that I had seen Deb before. And then I figured it out, she was opening act at the Velvet Lounge the night I gave my $10 to Ethan, Day 128. I just took a look back at that blog post from April and sure enough I even mentioned Deb!
As I walked over to get my drink I asked her if she was in fact Deb Felz who had opened up for Ethan and Machines on Vacation. In fact it was her, it’s a small world. I sat down and started eating my salad and then it hit me. She should be my $10 recipient of the day! I waited until she finished her song and applauded, I was the only one, not because the others didn’t enjoy the music but because it is just not the environment where people are clapping for the performer. But I did anyway. Then I went over and explained what I am doing and asked her to be part of it. She set the $10 on the Fender amp that was to her right and started another song…I sat back and listed to about a half-dozen beautiful songs. She finished and we pulled up some chairs to talk.
Deb plays as Adam gives me the "Who the hell is this guy?" look.
We were joined by her boyfriend Adam. I noticed him while she was playing and I was photographing her. I’m sure he was like, “Who the hell is this guy?” I introduced myself to him and he was really nice as well.
Deb’s card says “singer, guitarist and songwriter.” She is in fact all of these…and quite talented at each. She does pretty much all original music. I remember at one point some people at a nearby table asked her if she took requests. “Not really. I mainly do originals because I can’t do anything else,” she said warming the room with her smile. Wow…there are a lot of people out there making music that can’t do anything original. Her creativity started with writing. “I’ve been writing as long as I can remember,” she told me. “I wrote my earliest song around 9 or 10 and started guitar to put music to it when I was about 11.” She doesn’t just enjoy the writing; she says that it’s something she needs to do.
She likes when people listen to her music and get something out of it that she hasn’t even thought of. “All art,” she says “is for the audience.”
Adam said that Deb has good Karma. I’m not surprised after hearing what she intended to do with the $10. “I’m going to give it to this one Street Sense vendor, she’s always by the Smoothie King.” She ended up not seeing that vendor for a while so she gave the money to Kenneth B. from Day 30. “He’s out there in all kinds of weather.”
"Deb has pretty good karma!" - Adam
I particularly liked something she told me during our conversation. She said, “The people who I admire the most are the people who have something to complain about and don’t.” Well said.
Well, here are some links to Deb’s music. I love it. My two favorite songs are Pull and Meant to Be. If you want to hear more of Deb’s music, just come to the Year of Giving Anniversary Celebration next Tuesday…she’ll be playing live!
Deb’s website where you can listen to many of her songs for free
Video of Lovesick, Pull and one other song at Potbelly
Video of Raining in Baltimore at Potbelly
Video of Backwards at Potbelly
My video recordings have some annoying background noise that I can’t remove with my free software I use to edit. Sorry!
Year of Giving 