Performer:  Penny Olivier singer/songwriter/acoustic guitar

Date saw the show:  July 27, 2007
Place saw the show:  Kansas City, Missouri, Fringe Festival

3 stars 

Reviewed by:  Deborah Ground Buckner 

Penny Olivier (www.pennyo.net) offers a pleasant evening of song and guitar.  Dressed in jeans and sneakers and a three-quarter sleeve shirt, her mid-length blond hair falling into her face, she flashes an engaging smile as she looks about the audience and says, “There's people in here—it kind of scares me.”  Against this gracious humility, she lets loose with a set of songs of her own writing, her voice clear and pleasant, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar.   

Her lyrics particularly seem to appeal to twenty-something women, which formed the majority of the audience, songs of dealing with disappointment and despair and finding an inner strength to carry on.  A good illustration is “The Rain”:  “Will the aching in my soul ever go away just like you did?  I have to bring myself in from the rain.”  Or, the lament of, as she introduced the song “Three Shades of Invisible,” “Sometimes you look across a crowded room and catch someone's eye, but they don't even know you exist.”  The lyrics set out this feeling of emptiness:  “When I look at you, you never meet my eye.”  Or, the insecurities of a lonely songwriter:  “Will it always be just me and my guitar?” from the song “Me and My Guitar.” 

But the set is certainly not all on a down note.  There's the fun song about her hometown:  “I'm a dysfunctional person, I'm not politically correct.  Born in a small town in Michigan, surrounded by a bunch of rednecks.”  She offers the sage advice:  “Never piss off a songwriter,” as the introduction to “A Day in the Life of a Gig,” inspired by a real-life incident with the clever refrain, “I can't have a tip jar anymore.” 

There is also a strong defiance in the song, “I Am Not a Widow,” one which she would like to sing at Ground Zero or in front of the White House. 

Many of her songs are available on her CD Live At the Nuthouse.  Her work is pleasant, emotional and thought-provoking.