A Fabulous Night in Vancouver BC!

JPJQ's CD Release Party in Vancouver BC was a big success and a fantastic time!

We spent a week in Vancouver, catching up with old friends, rehearsing, recording, (and even taught a few lessons!) and finally playing this amazing show before heading back home to Portland... it was wonderful. The Fox Cabaret were such welcoming hosts, and I couldn't have asked for a better lineup of bands.

JPJQ Team Vancouver (+2) was up first, playing selections from the I Want Love album - not enough time to do it all, on a 3 band bill - and it went really well! It was such a joy to be back playing with the people who made the album possible in the first place, and to see so many of our friends out enjoying the show (and on a "school night," even!) 
The guys sounded great and the horns were hotter than the stage lights - Thank you all so much!



Following JPJQ was the wonderful Jen Lewin Band (of which I was a member, many moons ago - Jen even had me sing along on one of her tunes. I'm so glad that she's back playing her originals; they are just so beautiful, and I hope she finishes her record soon so you can all hear it! 

Finally, Benton Roark and the Rollaway All-Stars (yes, that's right, I even had a costume change - you can take the girl away from the theatre...) rocked the house with some of the Rollaway classics, and some awesome new tunes featured on his soon-to-be-released album "Deep in the Pocket and Still No Change." This is the album that Adam and I did some tracking on while we were in town and it's going to be a knockout! You can pre-purchase and help make the album a reality by supporting him at:

Then it was back to Oregon and our new apartment (and teaching studio) in Beaverton (SW Portland suburb) to get settled in, and get ready for a big summer of gigs and teaching! I'm playing almost every weekend this summer with Martin Henry and Freedom Street, and we have a gig at the Gresham Arts Center with JPJQ August 15th. In the meantime, there's still plenty of time to entertain at the new digs, and (finally) get caught up with all the website updates and so on!

Hope your summer is beautiful!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leaving a Legacy of Music

Image
This is my mom, Joyce (Reatherford) Pinckney. She was what I always used to call a "Professional tough act to follow." I'll get the sad news out of the way first. She passed away last month, and I miss her like crazy. But now for the good news. She remains a touchstone for everything I want to accomplish in the world. She exemplified the love of music that I want to inspire in my students and my audiences, and her celebration of life "party" was evidence of all the lives she touched; all the people who loved her, whether they'd known her for only a few months, or since they were 5 years old. I remember the students coming and going from our house, always thrilled with the new songs that Mom assigned for them to learn - especially when she started writing teaching music for them (and ultimately, publishing it)! One of her former students, now grown, even went home during the party, only to come back with a stack of her music that he played to entertain
Read more

Artists and Performers

Image
I have immense love and respect for my "capital A Artist" friends who write such fascinating and creative and wonderful music (and sometimes let me sing it)!  And I'm intrigued by (albeit occasionally defensive about) the fact that I'm not really one of them. What I think is that there are 2 main categories: Artists and Performers.  I am staunchly in the latter camp.  I love being on stage, performing for and connecting with the audience.  For me, it's all about that connection.  The moment when the band and the crowd are like one organism - I live for the recognition applause for the arpeggio at the top of "I Will Survive" or the guitar riff that begins "Sweet Child of Mine".  I  get goosebumps when I hear people spontaneously begin singing along - sometimes even singing the harmonies - and it's an immense thrill to be able to hold out the microphone over the dancefloor and feel like a rock star while the audience takes over the chorus
Read more

What Happens When a Performer Doesn't Perform?

Image
In my very first blog post , (which was actually written long before the version of it posted on this blog) I talked about the differences between "Capital A" Artists and Performers, and how I am, at heart, a performer. Back then, I was still doing a bit of theatre work, singing with a couple of cover bands, and starting to turn my "side hustle" (teaching) into my main money earning job. Cut to 2018. I haven't had a non-music job in almost 2 years... which is awesome! I have discovered a love for teaching that I hadn't really known was there, and I feel immeasurably lucky that I get to make music almost every day. I work a couple of days a week at a "strip mall music school" and the remainder of the week I teach from home, under the name Desert Home Music . I started this company with my husband/bassist/arranger/all around awesome dude, Adam Jones. We learned a lot having piloted this business model when we lived in Portland, and were able to tak
Read more