They've been called Boston's Indigo Girls. They were recently chosen "Best New Face Folk Act" for the Boston Music Circuit. And now they're coming to Hanover.
Back to Back, an all female folk trio, will be performing Thursday at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts as this week's featured DV8 band. The group has been together since March and has already stunned audiences throughout the Northeast.
All their music is original, but in a phone interview from her home in Boston, lead singer Barbara Lee Supeno described it as a mix between Bonnie Raitt, Shawn Colvin and the Indigo Girls.
Supeno writes all the songs, is the group's lead vocalist and plays the guitar. Kenni Feinberg adds harmony and is the rhythm guitarist. Mila Schiavo rounds out the trio with percussion and drums.
"The trio is captivating, very upbeat, rhythmic and original," Supeno said. But its real goal is to convey positive messages of anti-violence.
Supeno said Back to Back is especially working to reach kids before some of the more violent messages of society do. She said one of the images she wanted to dispel was how cool music video channels make it look when teenagers beat people with baseball bats.
"Why we're doing the music is to have a real positive impact and catch the kids" before it's too late, Supeno said. "And it's working."
She added that the group is different because it is trying to hook people on rhythms and the melody and let the message be relayed subtly.
"We hope no one listens to the lyrics. It's fun music and we're just trying to sneak the message in there," she said. "It's not a beat you over the head kind of thing."
Still, what the songs say is more important than the music, Supeno added.
"It's not just playing music," she said. "If I wanted to just play music I'd sit on my front porch and play."
But the trio has certainly done much more than that. In the four months the members have been together, they have played at least 20 shows, including festivals, benefits, clubs and coffee houses.
Among the spots where they have already played are the Passim in Cambridge, The Pressroom in Portsmouth, N.H., and for such college activities as the Wheaton College Music Festival in Norton, Mass.
Back to Back will start up here at 5 p.m. Thursday outside the Hopkins Center and will play for two or three sets, Supeno said.
Gigs at the Folkway in Petersborough, N.H. and The Blackthorne Tavern in South Easton, Mass. are scheduled for July 31 and August 14. Supeno said the group hopes to be big on the college circuit in the fall.
