It’s another New Year’s Eve on stage for Judith Tulloch
As a college student, Judith Tulloch enrolled in a nursing program. One day, her professor asked her to stay after class. “She told me, ‘I heard you singing and playing guitar in the courtyard, and there are other ways to help people beyond medical care.’ ”
She changed her major to music and became a teacher and performer. “She was telling me that I wasn’t cut out to be a nurse,” says Tulloch. “Imagine how different my life would have been.”
For 25 years, Tulloch has performed on New Year’s Eve with her husband, Stephen Franchino; this year, they’ll be at the Towne Crier in Beacon for a dinner show at 7 p.m. “Some people don’t want to stay out late so you can come out, get dinner and a show and head home, or get into the spirit and head to another party,” she says.
Raised in Brooklyn, Tulloch moved to Middletown with a friend, settled into teaching and gigged relentlessly. “Walking to the general store was the only exciting thing, but the situation inspired me to write songs on a Wurlitzer keyboard,” she says. She visited Beacon, which felt like New York City, and she and Franchino moved in 2011.
Tulloch is a fixture at benefits for Clearwater, the Beacon Sloop Club and other nonprofits. For the club, she wrote “The River Song.” The couple performs as the Storm King Duo and were married at the Towne Crier’s previous location in Pawling.
Her music is an amalgam of pop tunes sprinkled with jazz and Latin/Brazilian pixie dust. She often uses percussionists rather than a drum set and sings samba and bossa nova in Portuguese. She also vocalizes in Spanish and, although still suffering from stage fright, belts out tunes with a husky, midrange voice.
The distinguishing feature of the band’s sound is Franchino’s serpentine flute, which floats over the chords and adds a jazzy accent. Playing live, the band is on top of timed parts within tunes that require abrupt stops, starts and dynamics. Many endings feature elaborate lead-ins and latex-tight finales.
An animal lover, Tulloch has performed at zoos and the New York Aquarium on Coney Island. She wrote “Lemur Song” for the Bronx Zoo’s grand opening of its Madagascar exhibit and “Snow Monkey Song” for the Central Park Zoo.
She soldiers on at breweries, restaurants and festivals. “The music business has its ups and downs,” she says, “but I’m out there because music lifts our spirits, and we need that now.”
The Towne Crier is located at 379 Main St. in Beacon. The Tuesday (Dec. 31) show is free with dinner or drinks. Reservations are suggested; call 845-855-1300.
