Karen Kamenetsky & Friends

More than 200 people attended a rocking concert by musicians from Budd Lake and around the area on Friday, Nov. 23, and raised $2,500 for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The concert was held at the Skylands Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Route 57, Hackettstown. It was organized by Mountain Ledge Music, headed by Clark and Renee Paddock of Ledgewood. Mrs. Paddock, said two-third of the proceeds will go to “Your Grandmother’s Cupboard” in Toms River and a third to the Hopatcong social services department.





The concert included 15-minute performances by 16 acts, including Mount Olive’s Chelsea Carlson and Karen Kamenetsky, Long Valley’s Jody Price and Matt Agnus and Randolph’s Jack Tannehill. Each of the performers played at no charge and Carlson and Chaz DePaolo of Andover offered home concerts as part of a silent auction.

“The night was spectacular,” Paddock said. “There was so much good will in the room. It was amazing. It was a good way to celebrate Thanksgiving weekend.”
- Mount Olive Chronicle

Karen Kamenetsky, 54, of Budd Lake, is a pharmacist by day and a singer-songwriter at night. She will talk about getting started in the music business later in life.

“The most important thing is to come to a place where you understand that it won’t happen unless you put yourself out there,” said Kamenetsky.

Apart from the common call for persistence, Kamenetsky said it’s critical to be surrounded by talented people. She is currently leading a band that includes Renee and Clark Paddock of Ledgewood and Phil Landis of Hopatcong.

“I’m not a particularly trained musician and I’m not an accomplished guitar player so I surround myself with people who are good at what they do,” she said.

Kamenetsky said she didn’t write her first song until she was 53 and that her songwriting is evolving.

“Sometimes my melodies come out of left field because I’m undisciplined and untrained,” she said. “ “Some people write to a formula but my first songs were totally not that way at all.”

While she has kept her idiosyncratic lyrics, her song writing has become a bit more mainstream and it has been no accident as she recently completed her third CD.

“I’ve learned that in most cases you’ll have more successful songs if you do at least conform somewhat to a standard of what a song should be,” she said. “Songs that stay in your head are the formulaic songs.”

The motivation for Kamenetsky is that she feels she has something important to say. And she said that as she gets older, she’s learned to record her musical ideas quickly on her Iphone, lest she forgets them quickly.

“The most important thing to me is the lyrics because I have stuff I want to say,” she said. “In your 50s if you don’t get something down immediately, it’s gone.”

And above all else, Kamenetsky said the passion to perform has to be strong. Without it, there will be no real success.

“When I play my stuff and people are singing along and tapping their feet, there’s nothing better,” Kamenetsky said.
- Mount Olive Chronicle

“Karen Kamenetsky has always enjoyed singing but it’s only been recently that she’s discovered her song writing abilities. A licensed pharmacist, the 54-year-old Budd Lake woman hopes she’s found the prescription to success with her first compact disc, “Every Day Matters.” - Phil Garber, Mount Olive Chronicle