Get ready, folks, because we're diving into an emotional rollercoaster with a tribute show celebrating the 15-year anniversary of Adele's groundbreaking album "21"!

Check out the episode on Just Can't Not wherever you get your podcasts or on Lunchador.org!

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/850cf9c8-e367-4d86-a1e9-1974cb9ce8f2/

That's right, on September 17th, we’re gathering at the Center Stage Theater at the JCC for an unforgettable performance from Alison Eberhardt and her all-star band, who brought you hits like "Allison's Angry Girl Era" and "Dark Side of the Moon." We’re talking about belting out classics like "Rolling in the Deep" and "Set Fire to Rain"—songs that still give us all the feels! Alison shares her journey of bringing this show to life, from the personal connections to the music to the hilariously chaotic rehearsal moments—trust me, you’ll want to hear about the choir and the horns!

So, if you wanna feel a wave of nostalgia mixed with a splash of fun, snag your tickets for just $20 at rochesterfringe.com and get ready for a night that promises to be as powerful as Adele herself!

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Visit joebeanroasters.com to get fresh roasted specialty coffee either by the bag or with a Perpetual Joy subscription!

Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business

Check out Getting Real with Bossy: For Women Who Own Business on Lunchador! https://feeds.captivate.fm/gettingrealwithbossy/

Well, that music means it's time for another episode of Just can't not.

This is part of our preview for the Rochester Fringe festival, happening from September 15th to the 26th in scenic downtown Rochester, New York.

Go to rochesterfringe.com to get your tickets for as many events as you can possibly go to.

And I'm here with a guest.

Guest, why don't you introduce yourself?

Hello, my name is Alison Eberhardt.

I was here last year promoting Alison's angry girl era, and now I'm back, and we are doing a tribute to Adele.

Oh, you're not doing the same show again?

No.

Well.

Well, you know what's funny is that I kept joking at my show last year that, you know, we did Allison's angry girl era, and I was like, all right, well, I'll see you guys next year for Allison.

Allison's sad girl era.

This is Allison's sad girl era.

It's not Adele.

Like, Adele wrote my sad girl era for me, so I didn't have to, like, you know, write my own stuff.

So that's where.

That's how we ended up here.

So if you want to be sad with Allison, you want to go to her show on September 17th at 6pm Center Stage Theater at the JCC.

So [email protected] $20 for tickets.

Definitely go get those and show up in person.

So.

So why.

Why Adele?

There's so.

There's so many.

There's so many sad singers.

There's so many.

So many different ways to tackle this.

There's so many ways to express, you know, the existential sadness that is inside of you.

Why Adele?

I'm glad we have rapport after last year.

That is so funny.

No, well, okay, so I. I am kid that I'm kidding about that being the reason why I wanted to do this.

Not that I didn't consider doing Alice in Sad girl era, but.

So, no, this.

This.

The idea for the show started more as a joke and kind of a tantrum.

So this is so.

Last year was not my first time in the Fringe Festival.

I performed multiple times with a bunch of other musicians in different shows, usually at Kilbourne hall.

And they'll do the large tributes to the Beatles or Pink Floyd or.

Yes.

And that's not my music.

And I love perform, obviously.

I'm not complaining.

I love doing it.

You know, the crowd is incredible because they're also so into that music.

And I.

You know, I still perform with them all the time, and I love it, but every once in A while I would just be grumpy and be like, when are we doing the Kelly Clarkson show?

Okay.

And you know, all the guys who are, you know, twice my age are like, who?

And I'm like, But then, you know, again, that was a joke.

But I was like, actually though, it would be kind of cool to do.

You know, I said we could put something together.

And do.

I mean, Adele tribute, especially this album, 21 isn't just me saying I want to do fun pop music.

It's.

It is actually the best selling album of this century so far.

Is it really?

Yeah, it is.

So.

And this is the 15th anniversary of it.

And I'm like, no, I think that actually, and it's got a much wider appeal than some of the other, you know, current pop music that, you know, not that people don't like it, but I think that this album, you know, and just Adele in general appeals to a wider range of people my age.

But then, you know, people.

People much older and people younger because she is still.

She is still popular and has had multiple albums since then and, you know, so many hits.

So that's how we.

I say we.

And like, that's how I settled on it.

And I applied for Fringe.

I just told this to the director at the JCC yesterday.

That was like, oh, no.

So here's the thing.

I didn't have a band when I applied.

I said, let's see if we get accepted and then I will put together a band.

And we did.

And so.

So that's just that.

Yeah.

So once we got accepted, I was like, great, let's do it and you know, put together a band.

And now we're.

We're here and we're doing it.

Yeah.

And this is certainly one of the more resonant albums that people like.

It's hard not to know the songs for sure.

So, like picking this album specifically, was that an easy decision?

Absolutely.

I mean, this is again, like her other albums aren't the best selling albums of the century.

And when you look at what the track listing is of this album, you know, if you're someone who doesn't listen to a lot of pop or just doesn't really know a lot of Adele, the songs that you do know by her are on this album.

Yeah.

You know, people, everyone has heard Rolling in the Deep, you know, it'd be.

Kind of hard not to have you shopped at any album.

Any large big box store.

Exactly.

You will have heard it.

Have you heard any commercial from 10 years ago?

You have heard this song Exactly.

A Cadillac commercial, I'm sure.

Right.

And, you know, just.

Even.

All.

Even the, like, the more deep cuts, there's, like.

Even those people are, like, relatively familiar with.

So I.

That's.

Yeah.

So it was.

It definitely was not hard to say, oh, this is what we're doing.

Yeah.

So when you're starting to actually prep for this and you're working through and you're singing these songs, I'm sure you've sang them many times.

Who hasn't tried to belt out at max volume these kind of songs?

How was that process of going from, oh, I've sung these a bunch of times, to then thinking about it as a performance?

I think, honestly, I've always wanted to do a lot of these as a large performance.

So what I really had to do was, like, I'm always joking with the band and stuff.

I had to keep reining it in because there were multiple instances of me being like, and then we'll have a choir, and then we'll have horns.

And it was like, stop it.

Stop it.

Alison.

You say you're getting really close to a ska band at that point.

No one of the songs does have horns on it.

And I was like, we'll hire trumpet players.

And.

And I'm like, relax, Alison.

Like, stop.

But I think a lot of the times when I do.

I have.

But, you know, I've listened to it so many times.

Like, it just was really exciting to then be like, oh, my gosh.

And then we could have that drum part, and then there would be backup vocalists, and then it's gonna.

This is gonna be amazing.

Like, so.

So I think it's always, you know, when I listen to.

I mean, in really any songs that I really just love to sing in general, I am always kind of listening to the rest of it.

Like, wouldn't it be cool if we just did all of this?

How would we recreate that live?

And so, yeah, that's kind of.

That's.

That's what that process was like.

And again.

And then, I mean, it was Buzz Dye Joke reigning it in.

But, yeah, being realistic.

Like, okay, like, we.

You know, we're gonna.

We don't need to have him play, you know, that guitar.

We'll just do this.

And, like, you know, it's.

It's fine.

It's fine.

It's still gonna be good.

Yeah.

And so.

And I think the other thing is the, like, the voice is so specific and has this, I don't know, silky resin.

You know, this there's.

It's resinous, right?

It's got this richness.

And obviously the production, you're bringing that up as big as possible.

It just feels so smooth, but also impactful and emotional all at the same time.

That's a lot, right?

That's a lot.

Was this, like, when you were starting to perform it during your prep?

How did you feel actually starting to perform it and then, you know, bringing yourself a little bit into it as well, because you can't extract your tone and your inflections, and you can work at that.

Right.

But it's always going to be part.

Of you too, for sure.

You know, there's a couple things I was thinking when you're asking.

This is so I. I perform, what, like 90, more than 95 of the time as a.

As a cover artist, either in a wedding band or just at little gigs here and there.

And I always say that what I think works in my favor now, this is not me.

This is not me saying that I think I sound like Adele, because I don't think anyone does.

But I always say that my tone is very neutral.

I don't think I sound really like anyone.

It's not like, oh, you have a gritty tone or you have, like, this really high tone.

It's very, like.

It's very just, like, neutral.

So it makes it easy for me to sing different genres without it sounding like that sounds stupid that you're singing that.

Like, I mean, again, I just did a wedding on this past Saturday, and I went from singing like I wanna dance with somebody to living on a prayer, like, back to back, like.

So we need to stop for a second.

So you mentioned you're doing wedding.

You're singing at weddings.

Yeah, only Alice and Zangwy girl era.

Of course.

Yeah.

Just wait.

Your requests.

No, we're not doing any of those.

These are my songs.

This is my time.

What's.

What is your like for the things that are oft requested that are the typical things.

What's the one that you like doing the most in that, and what's the one you dislike doing the most?

You know, this is also a funny question because I was talking to someone about how there are certain songs that I hate listening to, but I love performing.

And it has to do with just how the crowd is during it too, or there are certain ones that I like to go out in the crowd and, like, sing with the bride and groom or something.

I will say I really love singing Proud Mary.

I really love singing I Will Survive, like really melodramatically.

I mean, those are.

Those are amazing songs.

Yeah.

No, they're just.

They're so fun.

Like everyone knows them.

Everyone's dancing and having a great time.

A perfect example of one that I really don't like.

I don't like listening to Shut up and Dance anymore because it's just like you hear it all the time.

But I love performing it because everyone is having so much fun.

And that kind of ties into why I went this route instead of actually Alice in Sad Girl Era is and why I personally enjoy doing cover things.

Because people.

People like to hear what they know and a lot of people know this album.

So I think it's just, you know, I enjoy doing things that have the mass appeal and everyone's going to come and have fun and be like, oh yeah, I love this song.

So that's.

Yeah, that's kind of where.

How we got here, you know.

So it's.

Yeah.

I find it as somebody who's not a oft.

I'm not all the time music kind of person.

Right.

My wife is way more.

That is.

I get on like hyper fixations on something for a while and it has to be like you have to get really mired in it.

What's one of the small things that you started to notice when you were really living in this music during the prep?

Like, what's one of the small things you notice that you've.

Like that you didn't necessarily notice before?

Hmm.

I mean, you know, this.

Actually, this comes back a little bit to what you just your previous question about like, you know, getting, you know, getting into it and.

Yeah.

Learning the music.

I want to make sure that, you know, as I'm.

Because we're, you know, we're in rehearsal mode and making sure that I don't lose sight of the actual emotion and impactfulness of the album that we don't get.

So it doesn't get so clinical that we're like, this is the chord and then this comes in and then this.

Because I've listened to it so many times that it.

So like some of these songs are second nature that I.

It does not matter like what is happening behind me.

I will sing it the way it's.

It sounds regardless.

And in some.

In some cases that's good.

But other timers for some of these, you know, it's like I need to make sure that I don't just sit there Focusing on.

Okay, is this.

Is everyone coming in at the right time?

And this and this.

And I have to just be like, trust that.

I mean, everyone in the band is fantastic.

Like, some of these songs, at our first rehearsal we did once, I'm like, wow, okay, that sounds.

I think we're good.

Okay.

We don't need to do that again.

So it's like, I don't need.

Like, I don't.

I need to relax.

The band is good.

And then, yes, for the performance, I need to make sure that I'm not just.

I don't see.

I don't feel stiff, that I'm too focused on everything else.

I want to, like, actually think about this album and, you know, both what, you know, Adele was feeling at the time and also how I was feeling at the time.

And I will say this album in particular is very meaningful to me because when it came out, when it was at its peak popularity, I feel like this wouldn't have come.

This wouldn't have come up last year because it was mostly irrelevant, but.

So I am a cancer survivor.

That's when this album came out.

And, you know, again, that was at its peak popularity.

I was home doing nothing except learning this album.

And I was still.

I was playing the piano and singing all the time, and I would learn.

I learned this.

I had the songbook and learned the whole album all the way through.

Wow.

And would just sing and play.

Sometimes I would make YouTube videos just because, again, I'm bored.

I can't go anywhere.

I'm home, so.

And I think so.

Not just when it comes to performing it, too.

I have to.

Again, right now, we're still in just, like, rehearsal and, like, making sure everything sounds good.

But then put myself back in, though, in that moment of, like, you know, some of this, you know, deep and these deep lyrics and the sadness and whatever, like, that was.

That was real for me when it came out.

And I don't think it.

You know, as long as I remember that, it's not hard to put myself back in that, because it's just.

That's the power of this album, I guess, as corny as it sounds.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What has to be kind of.

Kind of fascinating, right?

Like, you know, last year, we were talking about, like, going back to a specific kind of emotion that you had at the time, writing these songs and doing these things, but in this one, you're also kind of going back in time and revisiting a difficult time in life, for sure.

Was.

Was that challenging at times to, like, go back and revisit that, or is it something that just feels so separate from now that it's not quite as impactful as it was?

I think it's.

It's definitely not separate.

I think it's just something that I.

Is just kind of part of me.

Yeah.

You know, I see people all the time when they say, like, you know, cancer doesn't define me whenever.

And I'm like.

I won't say defined, but it kind of.

I mean, at least, like, when it happened to me, too, it was like in the, you know, 19.

I was, middle of college.

Like, it is a defining.

It colors.

Yeah.

Very defining aspect of.

For sure.

For sure.

So, yeah, it is a very defining aspect of my life.

And this really, like, this.

Some of my videos did get pretty popular at the time because it was like, oh, this is what Allison's doing while she's sick.

And so it is all kind of baked in together.

And that's, again, it's not an everyday thing for me now, but it is.

Yeah.

Again, it's still listening to these songs and, you know, and it's funny, too.

I remember, you know, I had a boyfriend at the time, and we did go through you know, not, you know, amicable, but breakup, but it was still sad.

And I remember I actually.

I went back.

I was.

I'm pretty sure I wrote this.

When I recorded the song.

One of the.

One of the songs on the album, when I, like, wrote my little comment blurb on the video, I said, like, it said, you know, people tell me that I should write a song about how I feel, but I didn't have to because Adele already did.

And.

But it really was like, there was so much of it that I was like, why would I write something like.

This is.

This is literally verbatim, like, what.

What's happening right now?

Which is, again, that Allison Sad girl era.

Yeah.

So, I mean, what part of the process did you decide to.

If I remember correctly, you were married.

Right.

What part of this process did you decide to dump your husband and start dating a world famous sports agent?

Right, right.

Was that part of the process of doing this?

Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.

When did you get to meet, you know, the LeBron James equivalent as part of this process?

Oh, my goodness.

That is so freaking funny.

No, it's.

It is.

It's actually, you know, but, you know, talking about my husband, though, it is really like, we.

I feel like we probably talked about last year.

It is very funny, too.

Like, because again, this was, you know, I.

My.

We've been married for almost eight years.

We've known.

We've only known each other for 10.

So a lot of this stuff all happened way before I met.

It's not that he doesn't know about any of it, but it just.

I was very much like, that was a very different part of my life.

So I think it's actually really fun, especially with like, with all the music from last year.

Like, he doesn't know the songs I wrote when I was 18, but like, it was super fun, like telling those stories and having him see, like, oh my God, like, that's so funny.

But.

And then, you know, on a similar note, like with this album, like, I don't think he doesn't listen to all the pop music he knows is through me.

So I'm sure that he knows all these songs now from just being, from existing around me.

But still, like, he has, you know, he wasn't watching the covers that I did while I was sick, you know, like, it was.

We wouldn't meet until six years later.

So.

So I think that in that aspect it is fun, like having, you know, getting him.

He gets to like experience that part of it too and then also deal with me when I'm being a crazy person, being like, we need to get this out.

And then they're coming over for rehearsal and this.

And he's like, all right, I'm going to order pizza.

Okay.

Everything's going to be fine.

Right?

It sounds like that is role in life as well.

I just, I just drove back.

I just want.

We moved one of my wife friends up for probably a year or so so she can recover from some things that are going on.

And I just drove a, you know, 45ft of vehicle with a giant U Haul and a trailer up from Florida to Rochester.

Holy Lord.

Over three days.

Wow.

And I said this without, with not in a self aggrandizing or like demeaning kind of way, because I know both of them really well.

I'm like, oh, this would have broken both of you five times over.

Yes.

And they're like, yes, it would have.

And it's so funny when you know, like, oh, that's me as a person is like, oh, you're going through this thing.

All right, I'm going to take care of this, this and this.

You go ahead and.

You go ahead and feel those things.

That's cool.

Yeah, go ahead and feel those things.

I'll go take care of this.

I'll go get some food.

You go Ahead and go and relax for a little bit.

Yes.

Mm, no, Literally, like even, like leaving tonight, you know, I'm not far.

I'm 15 minutes from here.

But, you know, my husband's like, what can I do to help?

And I was like, well, if you could.

I was like, I mean, I don't need you to help me talk about Adele, but if you could make dinner, that would be great.

And he was like, okay.

You know, like, so.

So, yes.

So he's super supportive and, you know, just like, what, What.

What can I do to help?

And that's great.

It's.

It's.

I think it's one of those wildly underrated things, is when you find yourself as a, you know, full ass adult, that the person that you decide to spend a significant amount of time with also happens to be a real ass adult.

And that complementing one another for sure is the thing that you end up valuing as much as anything else is that, oh, this person understands you.

Absolutely.

And can adjust for something like that, which is so small, but in the moment.

Yeah.

Just like, oh, God, thank you so much.

Yes.

There's food.

No.

And you know what's so funny is that my.

So my best friend who was also singing backup in the show, I love telling a story about how when she gave her maid of honor speech at our wedding, how she was like, derek is patient and easygoing.

Allison is none of those things.

And I was like, okay, okay.

I mean, you're not wrong.

But it's true.

So, you know, when I'm being unhinged, we have Derek to, you know, to calm things down.

Yeah.

So I guess the last thing I want to say is if you want to feel emotions in many different ways, performed in a big league kind of way by somebody who loves the music and is going to bring so much character and everything else to it.

You want to go out to the JCC at the Center Stage Theater on September 17th at 6 o'?

Clock?

Tickets are $20 at rochesterfringe.com Anything else people need to know before we close out?

Just that it's going to be a great show.

This is an all star band.

I mean, I always say that I'm like the least talented person in this band.

Everyone is so good and I'm really excited.

I really hope to see you there.

We're gonna have a lot of fun and I hope that you do too.

And where can people follow you other than going to the show?

Well, last year I was like discovering Instagram and now I'm like, look at me go.

It's, I think how many followers now?

But you can follow me at.

It's Alison Eberhardtmusic on Instagram.

That's awesome.

Well, thank you so much for coming out Again, thank you for having me here.

And make sure if people want to check out other shows on the Lunchadore Podcast Network, hopefully you check out some of our newer shows.

Why don't you check out Plants and Beats from our friend Rob Bell, come up with Lo fi music and talking, using plants as the avenue to talk to people about life.

And then our new librarian show, Reader's Advisory is coming out, I think in the next week doing Rochester's Book Club.

So I'm really excited for everybody to start hearing that.

And we'll see you out on the fringe.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

We're gonna see Allison's Ennui years.