6/20 CLARE & the REASONS at Berklee Performance Center

With a quickly approaching deadline and the overwhelming urge to roll around on my apartment floor and cry, listening to Brooklyn's Clare & the Reasons has brought me to a new pinnacle of euphoria.

Berklee College of Music alumna, Clare’s melodic vocals cradle stress and worries to sleep while the Reasons’ string and harmony accompaniment make me nostalgic for the simpler days when angry professors, bosses, and train conductors weren’t constantly looming around the corner.

Their latest album, The Movie (2007 Frog Stand), has taken a prominent position in my "Don't Cry, Everything is Beautiful" iPod playlist. My favorite track? "Pluto."

A love song to the former (but forever in our hearts) planet, "Pluto" the track puts worried ears to rest with heart-melting lyrics like "chin up Pluto the stars still want you and we down here do too/
you know what to do, just keep on keeping on."

Performing this Friday night at the Berklee Performance Center with My Brightest Diamond, Clare & the Reasons are worth much than the nominal ticket price.

As Time Out New York reported in their February 27, 2008, issue, "Both on record and in concert, Clare & the Reasons hinge on breezy, old-fashioned orchestrations."

Don't miss your opportunity to hear Clare & the Reasons this Friday at the Berklee Performance Center at 8 p.m. and take a listen at www.myspace.com/claremuldaur.