By Cathy Miller

As the Festival in the Borough, which takes place this Saturday in Downtown Washington, gets ready for its 16th anniversary (last year cancelled due to COVID) it will have two very familiar faces performing – Lisamarie Dombrowski and Maryann DeSiato, aka the JerZgirls. These two fan favorites have played at every Festival in the Borough since the start. They will be on the Scotty’s Stage midday on Saturday. Who better to be Cathy Miller’s the Persons of the Week!

Meet JerZgirls, Lisamarie Dombrowski (keyboards and vocals) and Maryann DeSiato (vocals and percussion), a high energy duo playing a wide variety of music from James Taylor to Pink to Rod Stewart to Janis Joplin, as well as original tunes. Simply put – great music from the 1960s to today.

They’re also 15 year veterans of the Festival in the Borough, taking place in downtown Washington on September 18, having performed at the very first one in 2004, and each one since. Their inaugural performance came about when Lisamarie walked in on a Festival in the Borough planning meeting on her regular mail delivery route. She pitched the act to the committee on the spot. As a result of that brazen move, JerZgirls were invited to play.

Lisamarie recalled, “At first we thought it would be weird to play in the parking lot next to Scotty’s Tavern (on Belvidere Avenue). Before we started there was nobody there. As soon as we began to play, people came. The fact that people flocked to see us was such a good feeling. It felt like we were famous! It was a lot of fun and a good thing to be part of.”

Maryann grew up in Middletown. “When we play in the Seaside area, my parents will come from Lakewood to see us.”

Lisamarie is from Maplewood, where she attended Columbia High School. She’s proud to note, “There are a lot of famous people that came out of there…Roy Scheider. Elizabeth Shue. Robert Verdi.”

They grew up in two different worlds and now share a home with their young daughter in a far more pastoral setting.

Has music always been a part of their lives? Maryann said, “Yes, for sure, part of my adult life. I was singing a little bit at parties and such, especially at family parties, but bands and things like that didn’t start til my early twenties. The genre was usually classic rock.”

Lisamarie shared, “I started playing piano in second grade. I was classically trained. Around 7th or 8th grade I stopped the classical lessons, I wanted to do pop songs. In college I joined my first band, a classic rock band. Since then I’ve done everything – wedding bands, cover bands, tribute bands. I was in a Black Crowes tribute band with Dave Venezio from Winterlong. It’s always been in my blood. Both my parents were musical. My mom sang beautifully. My dad played guitar and banjo.”

Maryann explained the beginnings of JerZgirls. “In 2008, I was in a band in the Somerset area called Morock. We needed a keyboard player. Lisamarie came down to audition and basically, having never met her before, we all agreed she was really good. I was in that band for three or four years before Lisamarie joined. We left the band about a year after she joined. We felt it was too much to be in a band and decided do a duo.”

She continued, “That was 2009. What pushed us to do the duo? I was doing a lot of solo stuff, singer-songwriter things, and Lisamarie would come along. One night we did a duet of one of her songs. Someone asked why aren’t you doing this? We asked ourselves the same thing? So we started singing more and booking gigs. One of the first gigs we did together was at the Mediterranean Bistro in Washington, which became our home away from home. We were a staple there. Then we fell in love. What’s followed was even better because we were able to do this as a couple.”

Maryann added, “It was fate. I love that we do this together. We needed a keyboard player and Lisamarie happened to audition. The rest is history. When you think about it, it’s not just us being a duo, it’s us being a couple. It’s amazing how it all worked out. It was meant to be. There were a million reasons why God put us together.”

Lisamarie agreed it was perfect timing. “Maryann and I were actually in the same band, Jersey Shades, at different times! Everybody’s been in Jersey Shades. And then, a few years later, we ended up in Morock when Maryann’s band was looking for a keyboard player and I was between bands.”

Lisamarie has been in other bands, like Southbound, but Maryann shied away from bands. “I like the excitement of a band, but I’m a singer,” she explained. “Singing over bands, especially as you get older, is not fun. It’s great until it gets too loud and I’m screaming and I lose my voice.”

That said, Lisamarie and Maryann may start a band eventually, keeping the name, and maintaining the duo as well.

Maryann sat in on a Janis Joplin song, “Me and Bobby McGee,” with Southbound at Festival in the Borough 2019 and the crowd went wild. She said, “It didn’t hurt my throat at all, but it wasn’t all night. If you’re singing like that, doing that for three hours would be tough. For one or two songs, I love it.”

Lisamarie said Maryann always does Janis Joplin at the end of the night to save her voice. When she was a keyboardist with Southbound, Lisamarie told the band, “Don’t put ‘The Breeze’ anywhere but at the end of the set. Like Maryann’s voice, I’m done for the night after playing a song like that!”

Maryann addressed Janis’ famous scream. “It’s hard to come back from that! Sometimes people want an encore. After doing a song like that, we’ll come back with ‘You Light Up My Life.’ You learn how to navigate those things.”

For a duo with two vocalists, a keyboard and a tambourine, their sound is very complete and very full. Maryann gave credit to Lisamarie saying, “It’s all her. She’s amazing.”

People think JerZgirls practice all the time. That’s not how it works. “I’ll be singing Juice Newton Saturday morning in the kitchen, that’s how we’ll learn it,” laughs Maryann. “I’ll ask if Lisamarie got it, and then we’ll play it that Saturday afternoon!”

During quarantine, they set up in a corner of their living room for some streaming house concerts. It was pretty much like setting up for a gig, except they only used one speaker, Lisamarie’s cell phone, and Facebook live. Lisamarie said the response was great. “People would send me pictures ‘Hey, you’re in our living room’ or ‘We got you downstairs in our bar.’ It was almost a sense of normalcy. We have friends that live in England who said ‘Finally, my first JerZgirls show!’ We only did a few of them, but really enjoyed them.”

Lisamarie writes songs, Maryann doesn’t. Of their originals, “Yellow Butterfly” is a fan favorite. “It’s about the passing of somebody who comes back in the form of a butterfly,” said Lisamarie. “I wrote that song about a friend’s experience. It’s the fastest song I ever wrote in my life. The words, the music, it all came at once. Probably less than an hour. Lately I’ve been writing upbeat songs. It’s a good way to express yourself. Plus you can play it any way you want!

“People know the original songs when we play them. They know the words and they sing along. It’s pretty cool.”

Somebody asked the JerZgirls how long they planned to do this? Simple answer – as long as they can! For now, most of their gigs are within a 30 minute drive from home. They have a regular gig in Seaside Park, playing three or four times during the summer. Riley & Jake’s in Clinton is another regular venue. Maryann said, “We try to play a couple times a month, mainly in Hunterdon/Warren counties. The days of working every weekend are kind of behind us. We’re older, we’re parents, we have day jobs.”

Are they still playing any of the songs they did at the First Annual Festival in the Borough? Maryann assured, “We always do the staples. Janis is always in there. Lisamarie’s original, “Yellow Butterfly” will always be included. “Don’t Stop Believing.” There’s a handful that we always play.” Lisamarie added, “We try to throw new things in there too, like Juice Newton.”

JerZgirls are slated for 3:30 to 4:45 pm on Scotty’s Stage, September 18.

Friday night, September 17 don’t miss the Festival in the Borough Pre-Party with the Emulators starting at 6:00 pm in the Pocket Park (44 E. Washington Ave.) to 8:00 pm. William’s Irish Tavern will host Warped Speed at 9:00 pm.

For a complete band listing and more check out Festival in the Borough at www.washingtonbid.org/festival-in-the-borough or www.facebook.com/WashingtonFIB/