NYC Scene Report – Bridget Barkan, Craig Greenberg, & Georgie Najar

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Bridget Barkan rolling out her “Red Carpet,” Craig Greenberg lamenting “This Lonely End,” and Georgie Najar feeling like “Whatever.”

* The only thing bigger than Bridget Barkan’s incredible voice is her over the top personality, and both are on display on her recently released single, “Red Carpet.”

A super funky jam, “Red Carpet” was inspired, in part, by Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, which is the duo for whom Barkan used to be a backup singer, and is now co-fronting with Shears. Playing on her red hair, he proclaimed, “She doesn’t need a red carpet, because she’s already got one,” and Barkan loved the cheeky reference so much she turned it into the story of her life as an artist.

“Being in the industry my whole life, and having a lot of rejection and heartbreak, or even being unseen and unheard at times, I often didn’t believe in myself anymore,” Barkan said in a statement, “I had to take the things that I love, and juice them with this humor and sass, and make a mantra for myself.”

A sonic dose of confidence, click play on “Red Carpet,” and in about four minutes you’ll feel like you can take on the world.

* NYC’s favorite piano man on the indie scene, Craig Greenberg, recently released a new single titled “This Lonely End,” the inspiration for which stemmed from a relationship gone bad … that didn’t stand much of a chance from the very beginning.

Discussing “This Lonely End” in a statement, Greenberg said, “The song is about entering into a relationship doomed from the start because one person – hint, it was me – was not in a place in their life where they were prepared for it, but of course, ‘they’ weren't aware of that at the time. It’s a tale as old as time, really.”

“This Lonely End” is the fifth single from Greenberg’s upcoming, as of yet untitled, full-length studio album, which is due out this fall, and so far each song has been an absolute winner.

Check out “This Lonely End.” I guarantee you this won’t be the end of hearing about Craig Greenberg in this column.

* Georgie Najar is a super fresh face in the city’s indie music scene. At just 18 years old, and hailing from the Upper East Side, Najar has just begun to make a name for herself, having recently hit the stage at The Bitter End to perform selections from her new EP titled Need To Know.

One of the songs she performed was the single “Whatever,” which Najar says was written after feeling overlooked, despite giving her all. It’s a feeling most of us have felt at some point in time, especially anyone in a creative field.

Najar may not be old enough to get into most indie music venues, but click play on “Whatever,” and you’ll hear why they’re all still happy to feature her on their stages.

For more of the best of NYC’s indie music scene, come back next Wednesday, and check out the archives for previous columns.