The Right Time to Be Blue

Move to Nashville, they told her. You’ll make it as a singer-songwriter in Nashville, they said.

Lynn Blumenfeld was 33 years old when she heard that advice from an executive at Warner Brothers Records, but the doubts that filled her mind kept her in New York. She had a great job in advertising and she thought she was too old to take a risk like moving to a new city and starting fresh in a new industry.

These days Ms. Blumenfeld, who lives in Montauk, recalls that executive’s words as advice she wishes she had followed. But now, about two decades later, she performs all over the East End under the name Lynn Blue with a regular band, and it is kind of like living a dream.

“I do feel like I could be the poster child for it’s-never-too-late-to-do-anything,” she said.

With an upbeat, friendly, well-rounded sound, Ms. Blumenfeld and her band — Dave Portocarrero, the guitar player and musical director, Alex Sarkis, the drummer, and Jim (the Rev) Nanos, the bass player — play a combination of Ms. Blumenfeld’s own originals and cover songs from an eclectic range of artists including Joan Osborne, Otis Redding, the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, and others.

Because she got her start when she was young in musical theater — she was in “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Pippin” at White Plains High School and did a small regional tour of “Godspell” while in college — Ms. Blumenfeld calls herself the “glee club nerd” of the group.

“When I was a kid, I wasn’t listening to rock ’n’ roll at all,” she said. “The band will start a song and expect me to jump in. It’ll be Led Zeppelin and I’ll say, ‘Do you know anything from ‘Pippin?’ ”

She has an ear for what sounds good. In her New York City advertising days, part of her job was to seek out the best and newest popular music. “I would listen to it and learn about it and use that as influence in what we were doing in our TV commercials,” she said. Ms. Blumenfeld also put her voice to work in radio spots. Her advertising credits include Clairol Herbal Essences spots and jingles for M&Ms, McDonalds, Pringles, and more.

These days, she is still in advertising as one half of the partnership Blumenfeld and Fleming, a Montauk advertising agency she started in 2003 with Jill Fleming. But by night, Lynn Blue is busy rehearsing, writing new music, and playing gigs at wineries and restaurants all over the South Fork. 

Ms. Blumenfeld’s pathway to the stage locally began about four Decembers ago with a compliment on her singing voice that she said came from Cynthia Daniels, the noted music producer. From there, Ms. Blumenfeld said, she was invited to sing the Joni Mitchell song “River” onstage at Guild Hall. Then, the following spring, Ms. Blumenfeld said, she was encouraged by yet another well-known East End musician, Nancy Atlas, to sing with a group on stage.

“I sang a verse and everybody sort of started clapping and cheering — all of my Montauk friends who had never heard me sing,” she said. “It was like a slow motion reaction.”

After that, she started trying to land gigs as a backup vocalist. But again, Ms. Atlas was instrumental in helping her find her voice.

“She said, ‘Lynn, stop trying to sing backup for everybody. You’ve got a voice. Go get a band,’ ” Ms. Blumenfeld said. “In my head, there were 20 reasons why I couldn’t get a band. I was too old, I worked too much.”

Fast-forward to today, and Ms. Blumenfeld has graduated from singing backup to putting her own original songs in her repertoire. Her song “Shaky Ground” goes like this: “It feels like the earth is shaking, or maybe that’s just ’cause I’m on shaky ground. It feels like my heart could be breaking, or maybe that’s ’cause I recognize the sound.” But she considers herself still in the youth of her career as a songwriter, and says she hesitates sometimes to break out her original songs in a restaurant full of people who are otherwise enjoying her band’s cover performances.

“I’m not at a point where I need to impose my need to be an artist on the crowd,” she said. “It’s one thing to be at the Talkhouse, where I’ll do some originals and people are there to listen to me. It’s a completely different vibe.”

Ms. Blumenfeld says she finds inspiration, in part, from the Ashawagh Hall Writers Group, of which she is a member. The diverse group there “sort of gives you license to go start a rock band when you’re in your 50s. They’re in their 70s and 80s and writing and still playing tennis,” she said.

She counts herself “lucky to have the luxury” of exploring her musical dreams.

“I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time, and now I am, and it’s really great,” she said. “It’s fun seeing how much joy people take from the music when people really get into it.”

Future gigs include two stints at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor tomorrow and Dec. 23, a Dec. 10 performance at the Saltbox in Montauk, and a Dec. 16 show at the Wolffer Estate Vineyard tasting room.