Eva Cappelli and the Water Shops Band

Eva Cappelli and The Watershops Band – “Valentine” - Cappelli turned a few trips to open mic nights into a burgeoning career as the leader of a pretty cool band. “Valentine” is a 10-song disc about love, unrequited and otherwise, that showcases not only her writing and singing talents, but also the talents of her assembled group of musicians known as The Watershops Band. The title track is the real highlight, a stirring torch song that anchors the disc. Find them at evacappelli.com - Donnie Moorhouse

Like mother, like sons.
They're a family of musicians, and on Saturday night at The Elevens in Northampton, Eva Cappelli will perform onstage alongside her son, Josh Boyle.

Boyle's band called Robert American's Little Brother, whose title is a story of its own, will be out of town, so he'll be sitting in with his mother's band, Eva Cappelli and the Watershops Band.
Cappelli's other son Robert Ives, whose stage name is Robert American, was also scheduled to play at The Elevens with his family, but had to back out after losing his band's drummer.
"I may never be rich and famous, and I'm no 'American Idol'," said Cappelli, 57, "but I'm being myself."
Cappelli picked up her first guitar at age 14.
"My sisters all got piano and guitar lessons. They didn't want the lessons, I did, but by the time I came along there was nothing left for me," Cappelli said.
"So I stole my sister's guitar when she was at beauty school and learned to play on my own," she added.
After playing in different rock and roll bands when she was younger, Cappelli eventually found herself married with kids, "busy raising them and trying to survive," she said.
Now divorced, Cappelli said she never stopped writing.
"I go to bed with music in my head and I wake up in the morning with music in my head ... I'm writing constantly," Cappelli said.
"The writing helped me get through it all. Two really good friends came over to the house and heard the songs and made me perform them for an audience. And when I got feedback from them, I learned some were experiencing the same things and that I wasn't the only one going through this.....that the rest of the planet has the same problems, issues, feelings and emotions, and they thanked me for sharing my songs," Cappelli said.
The next step in getting back into her music came when Cappelli was at an open mic night last July.
She met Joseph Carvalho III, president and executive director of the Springfield Museums Association, who plays guitar in a group that includes bassist Steve Robillard, keyboardist Larry Dulong, drummer Jim Cote and fiddler Sam Barnes.
Someone told him to come down and see me and he came down and listened and told me I was what he'd been looking for ... and it was the best day of my life," said Cappelli about becoming a member of a band again.
The group plays folk, country, blues, jazz, punk and funk.
"I don't like to be locked into one genre, I write everything and our new drummer likes funk so I've been concentrating on writing some funk," Cappelli said.
Looking back over the year, the musician said when it came time to introduce her sons to music, she gave her older son, Robert Ives, piano lessons.
"He hated them, but I wanted him to learn music the right way since I didn't have that opportunity....and today he's an incredible musician who plays guitar, bass and drums," Cappelli said.
As for Boyle, he started his foray into music by writing.
"Josh is a fabulous lyricist and his stories are almost epic-like when you listen to them. He's also a fantastic drummer and plays guitar....he picked it up the same way I did," Cappelli said.
But while Boyle, 30, has his mother to thank for some of his talent, he's quick to credit his brother, too.
"I guess I got most of my influence by listening to my big brother, Robert, who I thought was cool, and that's where I got the name Robert American's Little Brother for my band," Boyle said about his 36-year-old bigger brother.
"But I did like listening to my mom's old records like Tom Waits, and when I was a kid I helped her to deejay at weddings," he added.
Boyle's first band was called Gridlock.

"It was an old hardcore band. A lot of what I play today is doo-wop music with a harder edge to it ... and there's some fire and brimstone preachy stuff," he said.

Cappelli said she expects to take the stage at 9 p.m. and be joined later by her son.
"Josh comes over to the house a lot and he brings his new songs and we run through them and do harmonies together, and I run my songs by him, and its kind of nice," Cappelli said. "It's a nice time in my life to have a son to write and play with, it's just like the icing on the cake for me, there's nothing better in life."

Event: Eva Cappelli and the Watershops Band
When: Today, 8 p.m.
Where: The Elevens, Northampton
Cost: $5
For more info: Call (413) 586-9155 or online www.elevensmusic.com - By KEITH J. O'CONNOR