In 2013, local singer-songwriter Wendy Treat had a melody that she couldn’t get out of her head.
Problem was, she couldn’t find the right words to go with it. She started looking through a box of her old poems that belonged to her mom, who had recently passed away. The first poem, “In Memory’s Eye,” which detailed her childhood home in Rhode Island, stuck out.
“It fit the melody so beautifully that I decided I wanted to record it and give it to my mother’s cousins and my brothers and sisters for Christmas,” Treat says.
She did, along with a few of her mom’s other poems that she set to music. Her family appreciated the gift, but it was Treat herself who really got something spectacular from the experience. She finally recorded herself performing her own music.
She’d been writing songs since 1981, but never walked into a studio. For these songs, she recorded with local sound engineer and friend Dave Egan and felt like it was a wonderful experience.
“I’ve written over 200 songs. I wake up in the middle of the night with songs,” Treat says. “I was really shy. I was like, ‘Close your eyes and I’ll sing you one of my songs, but don’t look at me.”
Treat moved to Santa Cruz in 2008 and plays in local bands the Trolley Drops and Menage. She was inspired to finally record an album of her own music, Nepenthe, which was released in December of 2016.
She plays at Michael’s on May 29 as part of the fifth-annual Women Songwriters in The Round concert.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 29. Michael’s on Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $12 adv/$15 door. 479-9777.
Wendy is a Santa Cruz treasure! Thanks for profiling her.