BLOG : A Deep Dive into the Music of Tabi Haly

You may remember Tabitha Haly (then known as Tabitha Estrellado) from a blog post of ours back in January. Today Concepts is excited to share more about Tabi’s musical life as a singer and songwriter. She performs frequently throughout New York City with her bandmates Fabian Caballero and Michael Bunin.

It all started from way back before Tabitha can even remember. That’s how long she’s been singing. Throughout her life, music has affected her greatly. She found herself deeply relating to others’ lyrics, rhythms and melodies – to experience such meaningful creations inspired her at the young age of 17 to take a stab at writing her own songs. She enjoyed the process immensely, and loved what she came up with. She was happy to see that when she shared her songs with friends and family, they loved them too!

In 2010, Tabi ventured out to an open mic in the East Village to give her first performance. It was an incredible event that burst into more and more shows. She had her first extended solo performance in 2012, where she gave her audience a full hour of song and lyric from her own experiences.

That is where her music comes from: her own life. Her autobiographical songs speak of love, life, and feeling different. Tabi calls some her songs “advocacy songs” because they focus on her life with a disability, and are meant as a positive message for other people with disabilities. They allude to a struggle, but with an affirmative and optimistic purpose.

An astoundingly prolific song-writer, Tabi starts the process of creating a song with her own mind and voice. She develops lyrics and a melody on her own, and sings it to her bandmates who develop the guitar and drum parts. Other times Fabian or Michael might come to her with a musical phrase that Tabi will overlay with lyrics and melody. With new songs being written all the time, every show is an enticingly fresh experience for both band and audience. The band performs at venues of all kinds, since Tabi’s music spans many different genres from country to hip hop. In addition to music clubs, they play at events like the Disability Pride Parade NYC and the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Muscle Walk. Tabitha’s most recent show was at the Rockwood Music Hall on the lower east side. It was beyond rewarding for her when show sold out beyond capacity!

Tabi’s band is gaining more and more momentum as she writes more songs and performs more gigs. There is now an effort underway to get an album cut, which will allow many others to experience Tabi’s music. If you want to support this project, check out her crowd-fundraiser.

Meanwhile, you can enjoy Tabi’s music on her website. If you are coming to the Concepts Gala, you will see her perform! Don’t have your tickets yet? Get them here!