Sentinel Park, nestled in the center of Columbia’s Arcade District, hosted artists Blue-Eyed Mary and Rae Fitzgerald for the Sentinel Park Showcase — one of several concert events offered at the annual True/False Film Fest, which took place on March 2 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Sentinel Park, designed to be a casual yet innovative space, served as an intimate setting for the event. Friends and family of the performers, in conjunction with festival-goers, were able to unwind for an afternoon. As the event progressed, attendees sprawled across blankets on the lawn, reveling in the warmth of the sun and accompanying breeze. The park extends to the adjacent Witches & Wizards Arcade, with a number of restaurants and businesses in the surrounding area. 

Blue-Eyed Mary is a folk-inspired duo native to Columbia, and while they have remained close friends since elementary school, they only began composing and performing together in high school. Despite partaking in the festival in the past through Camp True/False, this is their first time attending as performers.

Effie Lillig and Kathryn Myers of Blue-Eyed Mary opened their set with “The Blue Heron’s Birthday Song,” which is one of their two recorded songs that are available on SoundCloud. The song is representative of the naturalistic theme that encompasses their sound. 

Their backgrounds in poetry are evident through their budding lyricism and are effectuated most notably in unreleased compositions such as “Take a Drag” and “Bug Sweat.”

The pair spent the better part of an hour crooning out an array of melancholic tunes, some of which were recently written, namely “Loon Song” — inspired by a whimsical encounter with loons on a trip to Michigan — and “Cowboy Song” to which they prefaced that “it’s good to be a cowboy, even if it’s only for three minutes — unless you’re the cowboy in this song,” which elicited fits of laughter from the crowd. 

The audience embraced Blue-Eyed Mary’s performance with open arms, deeming their elevated return to True/False as a success.

Fitzgerald, a singer-songwriter based in Columbia, took over for the second half of the showcase, offering a glimpse into her latest record, “Say I Look Happy,” which she released last fall. With support from her drummer and bassist, Fitzgerald performed upward of 10 songs. These included originals like “Swimmer,” “100 Guns” and “Little Rivr,” as well as a cover of a Third Eye Blind song.

“I write a lot of songs that are sort of about family, and this is no different,” Fitzgerald shared during her performance. 

As the afternoon drew to a close, Fitzgerald wrapped up her set with an acoustic rendition of the fourth track from her most recent album, titled “Say I Look Happy.” Attendees had the opportunity to purchase a CD version of the album, which was made available for $10, inadvertently offering a souvenir of the pleasant afternoon.

Edited by Annie Goldman | agoldman@themaneater.com

Copy Edited by Briana Iordan | biordan@themaneater.com

Edited by Scout Hudson | shudson@themaneater.com