Ten Cent Poetry

You said that the goal of your first full length – “Picking Through The Pawn Shop”, was to take the songs that you had been doing individually and see what would happen when you collaborated with other people on them; after taking a step back from it, having some time to look at it, how do you feel it worked?

I’m truly pleased with the results. The learning curve was huge for me. Looking back it was so ambitious. I started with “the bones” of about 15 songs. Some I had been playing for years. Then I had to develop a language with the musicians who I invited in, with the producer, with the engineer. I spent endless days with my head set on. Walking around downtown. Drafting new versions in coffee shops. Writing and rewriting. Tweaking string parts. Taking out tambourines. The collaboration really happened between the producer and engineer and I. It was like making a big meal together.

From New York City to Asheville, one background of classical music and one of a painter combine to form the duo known as Ten Cent Poetry.  Self-described as “mystical folk pop,” guitarist and lyricist Chelsea LaBate and cellist Melissa Hyman have been sharing with Asheville their beautiful and rich sound with a creative visual appeal. …

Asheville singer/songwriter Chelsea Lynn La Bate performs under the name Ten Cent Poetry. She’s an artist and that’s her prerogative, to call herself anything she wishes.

Take a stroll, however, through the debut Ten Cent Poetry albumPicking Through the Pawn Shop.Every lyric is deeply–hued poetry of the most introspective sort – and it all leads directly to no one but Chelsea Lynn La Bate. …