Harmony at Porchfest: music of Blackbird Revue

Blackbird Revue will be among the performers at Kansas City's first Porchfest on June 14. The music festival takes place on the porches of homes in the West Plaza neighborhood.

Blackbird Revue will be among the performers at Kansas City’s first Porchfest on June 14. The music festival takes place on the porches of homes in the West Plaza neighborhood.

Lovers or siblings do the best harmonies, someone said, and an area couple seems to be an example.

People can hear them at the city’s first Porchfest on June 14 at the West Plaza neighborhood.

The husband and wife duo that make up the Blackbird Revue will be among about 40 bands playing on porches.

Jacob and Danielle Prestidge are getting more serious in pursuit of a music career, they say, and will introduce a new song at the event.

The band with an Americana sound has been around for more than five years, but they have now gone from three-pieces to the two of them.

“I feel like the duo is more who we really are,” Jacob said.

And Danielle has quit her day job to manage the band full time.

“We’re serious,” she said, “this is what we really want to do with our lives…I feel like we’re getting closer.”

Ink Magazine placed them among the top 10 local bands in 2013.

It wrote: “Their sound is lovely, all melodic and well crafted, midtempo and melancholic. And their harmonies can be deadly.”

Their music was used on NBC’s “The Voice,”  they’ve shared the stage with bands like Over the Rhine and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and played at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin.

The new song they will play at Porchfest is called “Broken Season” and Jacob said it includes the lyrics, “I feel betrayal’s touch long after the deed is done.”

For that, he can thank a 1996 van that he poured money into but still it broke down, over and over. He bought a new van, he said, but “I would drive and keep waiting for something to go wrong.”

Cars and romance, it seems, can both leave scars.

“The song is cathartic redemption,” Jacob said.

As for Kansas City joining other cities and getting a Porchfest, Danielle said, “We’re excited about it – I think it’s a fantastic idea.”

Leave a Comment