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Harpist gets noticed for her songwriting

Gillian Grassie is describing the inspiration for "Silken String," the tune that landed her among the finalists in the prestigious New York Songwriters Circle Contest:

Gillian Grassie is describing the inspiration for "Silken String," the tune that landed her among the finalists in the prestigious New York Songwriters Circle Contest:

"I actually dreamed it," she says, in a faint phone transmission from a rest stop in South Carolina. "I had this apartment in West Philadelphia, and I woke up one morning with this image - 'I'm in love with a man from the North Country' - and the melody.

"I wasn't in school at the time," says the 22-year-old junior at Bryn Mawr College, "but playing music full time, so I had the luxury of going right to my harp and working on it for two hours."

You read that right. Grassie's chosen instrument and writing tool is not the piano or the guitar, but the harp, which she's been playing for 10 years. It would have been even longer if she had had her way.

"I had my heart set on the harp since I was 3 years old," says the songwriter, who grew up in Germantown and near Coatesville. "I can't for the life of me remember what it was that drew me to it."

One of the striking qualities of "Silken String," which is on Grassie's debut album, 2007's

Serpentine

, is its ethereal harp solo.

"I am completely in love with her," says Tina Shafer, artistic director of the New York Songwriters Circle. "She's a classy, confident and quirky musician. The fact that she plays the harp really separates her from numerous other female singer-songwriters."

The contest is designed to recognize and reward emerging songwriting talent. The competition drew more than 40,000 entrants in this, its third year.

Eric Bazilian, who along with his songwriting partner in the Hooters, Rob Hyman, has a stellar track record as a hitmaker, has called the contest "the real

American Idol

."

Grassie and the other 11 finalists will perform Nov. 5 at the venerable Bitter End in Manhattan before a panel of judges that includes producer Russ Titelman, critic Neil Rosen, and cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

The following evening in the same venue, the top five will be announced, and later the first-, second- and third-place finishers will be revealed.

The winner will get a $5,000 honorarium, radio play in New York, an opening slot for a major concert at Jones Beach on Long Island (headliner to be determined), and 10 hours of studio time, as well as other prizes.

"It's a hugely important competition," says Grassie, who learned of her selection only five days ago. "There's a lot of wonderful exposure. It's run by a great, incredibly supportive community of people who really are very interested in giving a leg up to emerging songwriters."

Grassie has taken an unlikely path to pop prominence. She was classically trained, with a background in opera. As a teen, she became proficient on the Celtic harp and began playing at international festivals. Later she began experimenting with jazz and Latin idioms.

Her first performing experience as a singer-songwriter came at an open mike night at the now shuttered Point in Bryn Mawr.

"I had been in a lot of competitions and had never been nervous performing," she says. "And here I was at an open mike in Bryn Mawr, shaking in my boots."

As she became a regular on the East Coast club circuit, critics struggled to describe her voice.

"I get Regina Spektor a lot, which is great because I love her," Grassie says. "Sometimes I get Joni Mitchell. Sometimes I get Norah Jones, depending on the song. Sometimes I get Tori Amos."

Obviously, it's the harp that gets her the most attention.

"People associate it with churches and weddings and other formal settings," she says. "My goal is to bring the harp to people who wouldn't have otherwise heard it, to test some of the boundaries. It's so much more versatile than people give it credit for."

Well, at least in the right hands it may be.