By JULES SHINKLE
BG Independent News
A fixture of Bowling Green’s music scene has passed, but her art will be remembered by the community for years to come.
On Sunday, Dec. 21, at 5 p.m., Grumpy Dave’s will host a memorial show for Joy Elizabeth Sitler. The lineup includes several artists who played with Sitler, including Bowling Green’s Boo Lee Crosser, Flannery (both of whom are members of the group Freight Street), and Elai Rose. Also joining the lineup are Selah Cadence Carter, My Own Desert Island, Mango Tree, The Northhaven, Dani Cotter, and As I Am.
Donations for the nonprofit organization To Write Love on Her Arms will be accepted at the door.
Sitler was a prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Outside of her solo work, she was a collaborator in the bands Brain Weasels (with Elai Rose), My Broken Demo Tape (with Boo Lee Crosser A.K.A. Thomas Vasey), and My Own Desert Island. She was an active member of the SpinTunes community, an online songwriting competition, which held their own tribute show in Sitler’s honor on Dec. 8.
“Obviously, [Bowling Green] had to have a memorial show,” said Jacob Fowler, organizer for Sunday’s concert and proprietor of the DIY label Beautiful Rat Records.
Sitler forged relationships with countless musicians. Her friends agreed that a concert celebrating her life was in order: “At the memorial service, there were all these musicians Joy had worked with. We were talking and – it was more like, ‘we are going to do a memorial show.’ It just felt right. It was intrinsically going to happen.”
“People enjoying music, catharsis, that’s the plan. I think Joy would’ve loved to be honored with a bunch of friends playing in a dive bar in BG.”
Originally, Sunday’s show was going to be the final hurrah for My Broken Demo Tape. The duo had decided to disband last winter after performing together for four years.
Vasey and Sitler became acquainted with each other through an open mic at The Stone’s Throw. Vasey recalled having a brilliant chemistry with Sitler, right off the bat: “I first met Joy back in 2021. I remember going over to her apartment and – in an hour – we got an entire set together. We went and played it, and it went great.”
“Everything happened so fast. Like, we booked a tour before we had even played two shows. Well, we needed something to tour, so we recorded the EP basically because we were touring.”
“It was like in Tenacious D when Jack Black and KG just like, have a connection. I’d never really had that with anyone else. Joy heightened everything and took seriously every song that you gave her. She made it feel like, ‘Oh, you’re not just some late 20s artist living in a small town that nobody cares about. No, there’s worth to what you’re doing.’”
Vasey plans to perform from the My Broken Demo Tape catalogue on Sunday. His experience with Sitler was far from singular – the SpinTunes tribute show was a testament to her wide influence and brilliant songwriting capability.
The memorial show will be an opportunity to hear Sitler’s music and the work of musicians touched by her art. She will be greatly missed.
