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Up-and-Coming State College Band Midstate Select Making a Mark with Rootsy Songwriting and Soulful Harmonies

This story was produced in collaboration with The Band Junkies, a networking resource for the State College music community

With a rootsy blend of country, folk rock, blues and soulful harmonies, four local musicians are making their mark with a new band.

Midstate Select is a collection of a few familiar faces on the State College music scene. Anna Pearl Belinda (vocals), Sam Christensen (guitar/vocals), Sean Heffernan (guitar) and Sam Milz (guitar/vocals) are prepping their first album of nine original songs while playing shows at venues around the region.

The band will perform at 8 tonight (June 11) to kick off a weekend celebration for the first anniversary of Pine Grove Hall (reservations required) and 8 p.m. on Saturday at Happy Valley Brewing Company.

Heffernan and Milz are a pair of skilled guitarists and songwriters who played in West Beaver Arts Collective. Belinda, meanwhile, had been carving her own path as a singer-songwriter, both solo and with guitarist Jake Finkbiner.

The Band Junkies’ Luke Cimbala interviews Midstate Select at Orchard Park in State College, followed by the band performing their original “Ghost Rider.”

The trio crossed paths one night at Cafe 210 West.

“I was opening up and doing a show with Jake, then they played the same night at Cafe 210 and they had an awesome show that night,” Belinda said during the band’s recent interview with The Band Junkies‘ Luke Cimbala.

They got together to jam and that first session resulted in “Everything I Do,” which they released as a single last year.

“We got a little more country,” Milz said of the collaboration.

As their project started to come together, they called on Christensen, a State College native and veteran of the local music scene, for a bit of technical help.

“These guys asked me one day to bring my audio interface over because they didn’t have access to one,” Christensen said. “I brought that over. I really liked the music and we started jamming and it sounded really good.”

The songwriting process has been a collaborative one, producing tunes like the driving folk blues rock of “Ghost Rider” and the laidback country of “Just a Little Song”

“The whole time it’s been pretty collaborative,” Heffernan said. “Somebody has an idea or two people have an idea… and it just continues to evolve.”

Christensen cites Crosby, Stills and Nash as one of the band’s big influences — a sound that’s evident in the tight harmonies and guitar work on their cover of “Helplessly Hoping.”

While the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to live shows last year, it allowed the band to focus on songwriting and recording, a process they say centered on each of the member’s strengths: Belinda’s gift for melody and harmony, Heffernan’s ear for arranging and engineering capabilities and Milz’s lyrical skills. That combined with impressive guitar work all around and the addition of Christensen to the vocals forged the band’s sound.

Midstate Select’s forthcoming debut album was recorded at the home of longtime local music veteran Andy Tolins, and features contributions from members of Triple A Blues Band, fiddle player Dan Collins and West Beaver Arts Collective drummer Rich Stever.

Visit midstateselect.com and follow the band on Facebook and Instagram for show and album updates. Watch their submission for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts contest, a performance of “Goin Out West,” below.

The Band Junkies is a local networking resource for the Centre County music community. For more information, visit The Band Junkies on Facebook, Instagram and thebandjunkies.com