Medical Student Takes Break From Hospital To Hit The Stage

After a nip here, a tuck there and about an eight-year wait, Carleigh Nesbit’s latest album is ready to be released.

Nesbit, a third-year medical student at the University of New England, has been finishing up “Come Out of the Kitchen,” her new collection, while immersed in a surgery rotation. Now she looks forward to heading home from Maine for holiday fun with her family — and her CD release show from 7 to 10 p.m. Monday at Pro Re Nata Brewery in Crozet.

Nesbit’s schedule may be packed these days, but she has learned that following her heart into medicine is easier and more rewarding when she stays committed to her music, too.

“I think it makes it all work,” Nesbit said of her music-medicine balance. “I came in my first year and thought, ‘I need to work really hard. Music needs to take a back seat.’ But I got so depressed.”

Medical school is absorbing, exhilarating and exhausting, and if Nesbit isn’t careful, all her responsibilities can put the rest of her life on hold.

“I just think it’s so easy to get caught up in it. It’s so high intensity,” she said.

Her current rotation, for example, is exposing her to the realities of performing surgery — not least of which is its ability to soak up time like a sponge.

“Sometimes, you think you’re going in for two hours, and you come out eight hours later like a deer in the headlights,” Nesbit said.

She has been enjoying her rotations so far, especially her time in obstetrics and gynecology, and she’s keeping her mind open on the way to choosing a specialty. But all work and no play won’t make her a well-rounded physician. It’s a lesson many other health care practitioners have learned before her.

“I feel like every town has its quintessential doctor band,” Nesbit said with a laugh.

About a year ago, Nesbit started performing again in the Portland, Maine, area, and regained a sense of balance and purpose that was, well, just what the doctor ordered. And now she’s surrounded by colleagues who enjoy taking breaks themselves to hear her play and sing.

“Anytime I’d play in the area, half my med school class would be there,” she said. “They’ve been really supportive.”

They’d probably feel right at home at Monday’s Pro Re Nata show. The new Crozet brewery at 6135 Rockfish Gap Turnpike, site of the old Moose Lodge, takes its name from the Latin prescription instructions for “as needed” and runs a food truck named Over the Counter. Learn more about the venue at www.prnbrewery.com.

“Come Out of the Kitchen” brings together some of the best songs Nesbit has written in the past eight years since her previous album. She raised the funds to make the album through Kickstarter and recorded it at White Star Sound in Louisa.

“It wasn’t so hard to choose the songs, because they really were the best ones of all that time,” she said.

She’d booked her studio time far in advance for June, and, as luck would have it, that’s when she was busy with board certification. Her new hard-won balance of focus and fun made it all work. Friends pitched in to sing and play with Nesbit on her new tracks, lightening the load and enhancing the whole experience.

“One of my favorite things to do is to play with as many people as possible,” Nesbit said. Jesse Harper of Old School Freight Train fame, for instance, joins her for the title track on the album, and it’s not unusual for 10 to 15 different musical friends to drop by on the bill of a show.

The timing of the release show couldn’t be better, as it falls on the singer-songwriter’s 25th birthday. And although many folks with birthdays during the holiday season can feel overshadowed, Nesbit sees the timing of her special day as an advantage, because people she cares about are more available to share it with. And this year, the party’s even bigger, thanks to the open invitation to “Come Out of the Kitchen.”

“It was kind of nice to have my birthday when I’m home and my family’s all there,” Nesbit said. “I don’t think I could have more fun.”

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