FARMINGTON – Darby Sabin, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Wilton, was recently featured on the latest episode of Mt. Blue Television’s Adroit Artist series. Known for the raw emotion of her music, Sabin attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and recently returned from a tour in Europe in November 2022 where she performed in Spain, Sweden, and Germany.
On Saturday, February 18, Sabin will be performing a concert at Emery Community Arts Center at 7:00 p.m.. The event is free and open to the public.
On Adroit Artist, she discussed her origins as a musician and her inspiration for her EP: “My first paid gig was at Tuck’s Ale House when I was 16,” Sabin recalled on the episode. Sabin grew up a part of chorus and band in school, participating in pageants at the Farmington Fair, and acting in plays. She always loved to perform, but she remembers being terrified to put her music out there.
“In the last six months, I feel like I’ve come out of my shell as an artist.” She wondered if this is due to her dad’s passing in 2021, which led to a time of grief that served as inspiration for her EP, Throne of Thorns, which was released in July. Sabin inherited a love of music from her dad, who always played rock n’ roll records and the Maine Rock radio station, WBLM, which she still listens to now. Eventually she began to sing and play along, inspiring her life-long passion for music.
Adroit Artist – Promo – Darby Sabin ~ Ep6 from MBTV on Vimeo.
“[Music] gives us this way to connect with each other and understand each other that we wouldn’t be able to do by articulating with words,” Sabin said. “The love of music or of art in whatever medium gives us the chance to bond with each other.”
In the past few years, she has worked as a music teacher at local elementary schools including Cascade Brook and Cape Cod Hill Schools, taking the place of the mentors she had as a student. Her elementary school voice coach, Lindsay Burke, was even the one who first told her about Berklee, during one of their lessons in the basement of Academy Hill School. Sabin has found inspiration in the kids she has mentored.
“The way kids respond to music is incredible,” she said. It has reminded her to get back to the fundamentals of life: “Kindness, caring about people, and what would my inner child want from me?”
Adroit Artist is a MBTV pilot project that showcases artists and their process. On each episode, a featured artist shares their work, be it visual art, music, film or otherwise, and discusses how it was made with host and Executive Director of MBTV Andre Cormier.
“It’s a little like show-and-tell for grown-ups,” Cormier described the show. “It’s really curious about making art and the impact art has on community building.”
Artists highlighted on previous episodes include the musicians Dead Gowns, Nuclear Salad, Rachel Spear, and Scott Barber, as well as artists Frank Chin, Lise Ragan, and Doug Rawlings. Also featured were short film directors Matthew Ward and Bob Barhite.
Look forward to more episodes of the series, featuring filmmakers Tyson Sapre and Monday Justice, and artists Coleman Martin and Gabe Mealey, Louisa Stancioff, Cori Schnieder, and Sagittarius Rising, a band of two sisters, Isabelle and Phoebe Rogers, who helped in editing the Darby Sabin episode of Adroit Artist.
Watch the premiere of Darby Sabin on Adroit Artist on Friday, February 17 at 9 p.m.. It, along with all past and future episodes, will be available on mtbluetv.org for on-demand viewing.
MBTV is actively looking for a lead sponsor for the show. If interested, contact andre@mtbluetv.org or make a donation at mtbluetv.org. Darby Sabin’s music is available on all streaming platforms and her website, darbysabin.com.
