“A thoughtful, honest songwriter with a unique voice ranging from mellow to full, balancing between traditional folk and outsider.“

Berry Breene is a folk musician who also is an accomplished visual artist. Her vibrant work ranges from commissioned portraits and landscapes to public murals dotting Western PA public spaces. Her solo music reflects her art in a simplistic, traditional folk manner, as well as being a member of the band Her Ladyship where her harmonies and musicianship blend into a beautiful, ethereal sound. I want to thank Berry for taking the time to participate in this edition of First/Last.

The first album you ever bought?
Ace of Base : Happy Nation/The Sign. I listened to it on repeat all summer. I was lucky to be the youngest with two older siblings who loved music. Tom Petty Wildflowers and REM Automatic for the People were two of the first hand-me-downs from my sister. I stole Weezer Blue Album from my brother.

Your last album bought?
Waxahatchee : Out in the Storm.

Favorite album of all time?
(self imposed rule of not including greatest hits or “essential” artist collections):

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
Weezer: Pinkerton
Neutral Milk Hotel:  In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Rilo Kiley The Execution of All Things

Least favorite/most disappointing album?
I wanted to get into Father John Misty but couldn’t.

First concert attended?
The Allman Brothers Band (it could have been Paul Simon and Bob Dylan, but I was a young fool and didn’t know any better and regret the decision to this day).

Last concert?
Nelsonville Music Festival: Julia Jacklin, Mandolin Orange, Mavis Staples, Oh Sees, Sun June, and (of course) Michael Hurley, were memorable

Favorite concert ever?
Built to Spill in 2013. They knocked my socks off.  Aretha Franklin at Heinz Hall in 2015, I was in tears.

Least favorite concert?
Warped Tour 2000 at the now-defunct IC Light Amphitheater. I wasn’t wearing proper footwear and lost my sandals; my friend gave me a piggyback ride over the bridge. The music wasn’t memorable.

Favorite thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?
I love the rolling hills and river valleys and viewing them from my kitchen window. I am enamored daily by the way the atmosphere changes the colors of the hills rolling into the distance. In visual art we mimic the color-change phenomenon using atmospheric perspective; it’s one of my favorite things to paint. I am grateful to witness this nature in an urban setting everyday. I love Pittsburgh’s age, history and scars. I love her old brick buildings and houses from millworker row homes to mansions showboating the spoils of the industrial revolution.

I also like making music with my bandmates in Her Ladyship!

Thanks, Berry. There are always regrets in who to see when the chance was there. Mine will always be Stevie Ray Vaughan at The Decade. What was I thinking when I passed on the offer?

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“Her Ladyship is a Pittsburgh based indie-folk band featuring lush, soulful harmonies, acoustic guitar, and evocative, literary lyrics.”

Her Ladyship is a Pittsburgh based acoustic folk collective who are the house band at Scratch Food and Beverage in Troy Hill. Every Thursday from 9:30 – 11pm you can catch them until April with the last Thursday of the month being an open mic. I want to thank Brian Reyburn (Guitar/Vocals) for taking the time to participate in this edition of First/Last.

• The first album you ever bought?
• Queen’s Greatest Hits (cassette). Weird Al’s Alapalooza (CD).
• Your last album bought?
• OK, Wreck Loose.
• Favorite album of all time?
• This title is always changing, but a short list of albums that changed my life and held the title of “favorite” at one time or another is:
• Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Leonard Cohen.
• Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series #’s 2 and 7.
• Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
• Joanna Newsom’s The Milk-Eyed Mender.
• Least favorite/most disappointing album?
• Joanna Newsom’s Divers and Fleet Foxes Crack-Up.
• First concert attended?
• My mother swears this was a Backstreet Boys concert, but the first concert that I remember going to however is a Kingston Trio concert in Layton, Utah.
• Last concert?
• The Easy Leaves and Pokey LaFarge at The Black Cat in Washington DC like four days before Pokey’s band-mate Koenig was hit by a car while on the sidewalk in Charleston, SC.
• Favorite concert ever?
• (At least most recently) Wreck Loose at Gooski’s.
• Least favorite concert?
• Robert Plant at Santa Barbara Bowl (approx. 2005). I was discovered while trying to sneak into the concert and ended up lying down on the ice-plant and listening to the whole show from the shrubbery outside the venue.

Favorite thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?

Pittsburgh’s array of abandon houses has always had a great appeal to me. I’ve always enjoyed exploring the ghosts of old houses and rummaging through the bits of histories that people have left behind in their homes. Although they are quickly disappearing (and many of them already have), the abandoned houses throughout this city are wonderful keys into Pittsburgh’s past and provide such juxtaposition as to what Pittsburgh was against the shiny, face-lifted place that it’s becoming. The architectural relics around this city (rarities in most other places) have, over the past decade or so, shown me many lessons and just as many hours of (illicit?) entertainment.

Thanks, Brian. Scratch food is the bomb. I’m gonna have to stop by on a Thursday soon to see you guys. Also, I am with you on the abandoned houses thing. They are so interesting to explore and yes, they are disappearing very quickly.