Helen Welch helps fill that gap and keeps the music alive with Superstar: The Songs, The Stories, The Carpenters, a concert of the duo’s biggest songs and the stories behind them. She’ll perform them in a fresh way at 8 p.m. Friday at Veterans Park as part of the 57th annual Summer Arts Festival.
Admission is free, but donations to support the series will be taken during intermission pass the hat offerings.
Welch, who has performed at Great Britain’s West End and on Broadway, doesn’t like the term tribute act. She doesn’t try to emulate their stage costumes or directly sound like Karen.
Instead, she went to Richard Carpenter and asked his blessing to perform their songs a little differently and was granted it, hiring four top musicians to back her.
“The first thing is I love the music, which is so amazing,” she said. “I did some research on how they were put together, and there is a lovely story about how the songs came about, so I think of the show as a docu-musical, and I imagine this is how they may do it.”
While those who didn’t like Carpenters tunes are more vocal, Welch said there’s actually a lot of admirers she calls closet Carpenters fans who come out for this type of show and hopes it wins new fans.
“Maybe it’s a husband who brings his wife and they find there’s all types of music here – jazz, rock, country, classical or putting a rocking guitar solo in a ballad. Richard was such a talented arranger,” she said.
She enjoys playing outside and looks forward to performing on the stage in Veterans Park, having played here previously, and understands the unpredictable weather.
“I’m from Britain, we’re used to getting wet,” she said, laughing.
When not doing justice to the Carpenters songbook, Welch also does tours performing reimagined songs of the Beatles and other female performers. She says it helps coming back to these songs fresh and fun and keeps her brain from rusting.
When not performing, Welch enjoys riding horses and spent the past week or so in Wilmington, Ohio, competing in the National Dressage Pony Cup, earning a third-place prize in one event.
“It’s a pure joy to switch off,” she said. “I’m lucky, I don’t get nervous. My life is onstage, so I’m used to nerves before performing.”
HOW TO GO
What: Superstar: The Songs, the Stories, The Carpenters
Where: Veterans Park, Springfield
When: Friday, July 14, 8 p.m.
Admission: free
More info: www.springfieldartscouncil.org/