Auditions for Lopez Artist Advance ran the week of April 30th, 2007 and were held evenings in the music room at Lopez Elementary School. Ann-Marie Fischer, the head of the music department, was invaluable help with the entire audition process, she shaped up the applications, used her website to field communications with the artists, and set up all the audition appointments. This is a very bright and interesting woman who is dedicated to music and community. She's also a member of more than one local music group.
At the auditions were Ann-Marie Fischer (not a judge), and judges Ralf Illenberger, Producer; and Lenedra Carroll, Executive Producer. Michele Heller, Executive producer and primary funder for the project, was at many of the auditions as well. Artists were able to bring up to ten people to their own audition, so the audiences varied.
Day 1 - MONDAY APRIL 30, 2007
4:00 P.M. TAMARA SHANE
Tamara Shane is a visual artist and singer-songwriter who has lived thirty years on Lopez Island. She lives on the back of an old farm, very close to the land, without facilities such as electricity. Her time is her own and she writes music and makes art. Tamara's visual art is very allegorical, often sculptural using copper and wood. She draws and paints as well, and shows her work in local fairs and gallery spaces. She told us she is self-taught since the age of 13. The folk style is her preferred music genre and she does it well.
Tamara was the first artist to audition. She got off to a false start on her song but corrected herself with grace and courage and then pleased us with her well-written folk material. Tamara's voice is very good and well-suited to her material. She sang four songs, accompanying herself on guitar and harmonica. One song was a lovely instrumental; she said the horses in the next pasture seemed to love it. I did too.
I really liked the lyrics in her first song, A Long Time:
I am the traveler and I am the winding road I am the carrier and I am the heavy load I am the dreamer and the dream I am the song my spirit loves to sing and I know I know from a long time ago (copyright Tamara Shane 2006)
NOTE: Though she didn't win the auditions, Tamara was inspired to go right ahead and record a CD herself that was just released in February titled "Traveler on the Road." I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
5:00 P.M. VILINA SANBURN-BILL
Composure, talent, and a really good voice would be the first descriptives for Vilina Sanburn-Bill. Vilina, 12 years old, has lived on Lopez all her life and has been singing and playing “for years,” she said. She really enjoys folk songs such as Blowing On the Wind, and Pack Up Your Sorrows, both of which she sang for us. She ended with a delightful a cappella song, The Silly Lullaby. We loved her voice and manner, and were quite impressed with this young artist. Vilina was one of the background singers we used when recording Karjam Saeji. She's very good.
6:00 P.M. HAWK ARPS
Hawk Arps was the only artist that auditioned twice: the first time as a solo artists, on the vibes (which he has been playing for 30 years). Then again at 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday as part of the Hawk Arps Quartet. He is really an outstanding musician and composer who already has one album called Hawk Arps. His solo material was vibes renditions of jazz favorites. His quartet material consisted of more of his original compositions which were excellent. Sadly for Hawk, while the producer thought Hawk was very talented, he wasn't keen to do jazz standards, nor was he as interested in producing a vibes-driven album.
Hawk is one of my favorite people and musicians on the island. He's done a great deal to encourage local talent, music, bands and so on. All the musicians really enjoy and respect him. He plays numerous instruments well, including the drums, and stands in with a number of groups - he performs a lot on the island. I recently saw him doing a stand-up job on a drum kit, wearing a huge white wig and long overcoat, as part of the Shark Reefers, a very tight band that made us all dance madly at a harvest party. He came to the CD release concert for the winning artists, having just played a local wedding and bearing wedding cake for the rest of us!
Hawk told us at the auditions that if he didn't win he was going to go ahead and record his quartet album anyway. True to his word, that CD is now pressed, and he put it in my hands recently. It's Hawk Arps & the Laureates, Vibra Cum Laude. He used some excellent musicians and told me that they were the real treat and surprise of the process: they came together, it was one of those effortless musical experiences ... it went so smoothly, the music just flowed. You can tell when you listen. I like music to dance around the house to and this works great for me in that way. Hawk had a limited budget and time frame, like most musicians, and I think he did a pretty good job with it.
An interesting thing about the making of the CD: Hawk got sponsorship for the CD from local businesses, to help with the costs in part, and put their logos in the CD tray artwork, so when you remove the CD, you see the sponsors. Its a method I've used with other artists from time to time, and can be quite successful for bringing funds together to record.
Overheard by me in town: Hawk talking to someone on the deck of Holly Bs Bakery, “It’s wonderful, even after 20 years of marriage, my relationship with my wife just keeps getting better and better." Like I said, Hawk's a terrific guy.
7:00 P.M KARJAM SAEJI
Karjam Saeji is Tibetan. His english was quite limited so his wife, Cedar Bough Saeji (a long-time resident of Lopez) served as interpreter at the auditions, when needed. Karjam was accompanied on some songs by local percussionist Jamie Cordova. Karjam's voice and presence blew us away. He sang original compositions as well as traditional Tibetan songs. He sang some songs a cappella and, again, we were impressed with his mastery.
Karjam toured as a dancer with a Chinese troupe. Because of his noticeable voice he was singled out to sing occasionally, but has always thought of himself as a dancer. How did a non-English-speaking Tibetan Buddhist end up on Lopez Island? While touring in China with his troupe, he met a pretty American photographer, linguist, and teacher, who offered to show him the sights there. They married a year later and he joined Cedar Bough on Lopez. Cedar Bough saw the Lopez Artist Advance poster and encouraged him to audition, "for the experience, even though we knew he couldn't win." Karjam's manner is majestic and humble at the same time, his wonderful traditional clothing adds to the feeling, and he certainly is handsome. For the recording, Karjam played the bouzouki, recently learned and adequately played. His songs, vocals, and performance were very strong. His original songs are a wonderful mix of contemporary/traditional melodies; all of nature, and all of life is in his voice. It’s a CD I play often while I'm at the computer. For more on Karjam and to sample his music, check out the B.I.O. section.
Day 2 - TUESDAY MAY 1, 2007
5:15 P.M. TERRY WEAN/CORVUS TROUTEYES
Good solid voice, solid folk-style songs, self-accompanied on the guitar. Terry Wean played original songs such as Through the Pines, Love Your Crooked Neighbor (With Your Crooked Heart), and Dance, Dance, Dance. I encouraged Terry to keep writing. His songs were fine, but not excellent and I feel he would need to make a concerted effort to improve. If he studied other songwriter's structures and lyrics, he likely has enough ability to really improve. His voice was strong, and very dear somehow.
Terry is a stonemason, an off and on full-time resident of Lopez for 13 years. His wife has a thriving specialty paper store in Seattle. I loved this man, he had a deep, uncomplicated feel. He'd had a brain tumor, he told us, nearly died. Barely hanging on in the hospital, three ravens came and sat on his windowsill for a very long time. It was a wordless, but transformative communication and he began to get well immediately after. I asked him why the unusual name of Corvus Trouteyes as a performer. He said "Corvus is from the latin for Raven, and well....(shyly) Trouteyes is the endearment that my wife calls me." And like I said, he's very dear.
6:00 P.M. JEFFREY STONEHILL
Its no use trying to pigeon-hole Jeffrey Stonehill. He's so far out beyond genre that you can barely see him from there. This local character is heavy on character – he’s a playwright, singer-songwriter, actor, activist, linguist, and teacher. And entertainer. Musically his genre is pure improv, both music and lyrics. Give Jeffrey a topic and he'll make up melody, lyrics, and music (guitar) on the spot. We had fun with this at the auditions. He's good, and he's very entertaining. He also sang some previously improvised songs that happened to get recorded at the time they happened, so he was able to learn them. He played and regaled us with song stories having topics as removed from one another as worry, politics, drugs, and gardening.
Jeffrey has been around Lopez a "good long time" and has been singing, playing and writing for 40 years. He's an alternative life-style kind of guy, well-read, travels a lot and is always a great conversation if you run into him perched on a stool at the Love Dog Cafe.
7:00 P.M. LOPEZ SOUND
This vocal a cappella octet was one of my personal favorites in the auditions. In their application, they asked to audition, "for the experience," while disqualifying themselves from the competition. "We would prefer that one of Lopez's many talented musicians, who would like a career in music would have the opportunity." By the way, this sentiment was echoed by others who auditioned. There is a strong community spirit on Lopez and people look out for one another.
This is a top drawer act! The group consists of Ann Palmer, Christine Langley, Leta Marshall, Stephanie Hylton, Gary Alexander, Lane Langford, John Butte, and J.C. Marean, group leader. Their arrangements are fantastic. Revenge of the Flowers was a vocal adaptation of 'Waltz of the Flowers' from Tchaikovsky's Nutcraker Suite; it was purely fantastic, as were all songs in their selection. For Revenge, the arrangement and lyrics by group members Stephanie Hylton and Gary Alexander are as fine as any I have heard. Very, very clever, touching, technically terrific, awesomely good group. Lopez Sound has a repertoire of over 80 songs, sacred and secular, dating from A.D. 1000 to the present.
Group member Leta Marshall participated in an Artist Advance voice workshop I hosted on Lopez two years ago, with singer and vocal coach, Susan Osborn. A flute player at that time, Leta really dived into the exploration of her voice (little used since church choir days, she mentioned.) She's been singing since and is a lovely, strong, and true vocal addition to Lopez Sound. I hope they get a CD recorded soon … I want a copy.
Day 3 - WEDNESDAY MAY 2, 2007
5:30 P.M. ANGEL PEREZ
Angel Perez grew up on Lopez. She works at the pharmacy and has a five-year-old daughter. Angel walked into the auditions with a small CD player, set it down on a chair near her, we greeted one another briefly, she pressed play and sang a couple songs with her favorite singers. When I say she sang with them, I mean that it wasn't kareoke in the sense of singing to a music only track of a popular song. The popular singer's voice was there too, and much louder than Angel's. Before you laugh, let me say that Angel can truly sing like one. This young woman has a wonderful voice. We just couldn't hear it too well above Faith's voice, but that was because she chose not to use a mic – our audition room was not large. However, because she so deeply moved into her own enjoyment of music, we were all charmed.
At the end of a couple of songs to track I asked her if she would be comfortable singing a cappella and she said, "Sure, just give me a minute to find the beat." I then watched her center herself, finding the beat inside her, pause, then move into the joy that singing is for her. It was an awesome performance of Mississippi Girl, Faith Hill, note perfect, delivered with wonderful expression, her rhythm was absolutely perfect as well, which is more unusual than you might realize. We asked for another a cappella song, which she performed just as well as the first. She told us that she sings everyday to her favorite songs, and I'd say that this daily dedication to her singing really shows.
Limited to her experience on Lopez, Angel might have little sense of how good she is, and there are few opportunities for her to explore her talent there, but I would love to see her do that. It's harder for a singer who does not play an instrument to take advantage of local singing opportunities because she is always dependent on other musicians. I hope Angel doesn't let this stop her in future. Hey, Angel, get together with a guitarist and work up some songs for local events! Because our time-line and budget were limited for this project, we decided in the end to choose artists who had original material, and not deal with the rights and complications of outside material. In other circumstances, I would be happy to record Angel Perez, and I know it would be a moving and powerful expression of her own voice, she's a very talented singer.
6:00 P.M. JEAN-JACQUES TETU
It took only a few minutes to understand that Jean-Jacques Tetu was already a professional musician, and was born to perform. And he can really play guitar. As with Hawk, Karjam, and Jeffrey, we had already heard much about this young man, and we found that the local praise was well warranted. He was at ease, had excellent performance skills, and was a terrific guitar player, with a great voice. Jean-Jacques is an American French Canadian, raised on Lopez. He has had the benefit of association with some of the amazing local musicians who took him under their wing and saw that he gained terrific skills. And he has taken the chance to perform at most opportunities that have presented locally throughout school.
For the auditions, Jean-Jacques performed a number of blues covers, and blues had been his life, musically speaking. As I listened to these blues covers, the feeling I had was that I was listening to a talented artist who hadn't found his own voice. I didn't buy the complete blues focus, though he did it amazingly well. So I asked if he had any songs he had written, then asked to hear them when he said yes. That was when we began to hear something more authentic to his own musical vision. His songs were colored with his love of blues, but were good original songs. My feeling was that if Jean-Jacques now began to explore his own voice instead of the voice of his musical heros, he would begin to tap into a great power in him as an artist. Not that I feel he needed to leave the blues behind, but that he should learn to dictate his own vision on his musical influences. With this approach, his soulfulness would remain, but his personal authenticity could then shine out to connect strongly with listeners.
Jean-Jacques won the chance to make a full demo CD to focus on his own song-writing and recording style. I spoke with him recently, and he has already moved on from that demo ... it feels outdated to him already as his musical exploration continues to bring him closer and closer to his own ideas and creativity in new songs. That's how it should be and I look forward to hearing the music that comes from the period he's in now, a free fall pursuing his passion for music, changing and growing like crazy, and finding more and more what his own vision is. He's a lot of fun too, I really enjoy being in touch with him.
7:00 P.M. HAWK ARPS QUARTET
I already addressed Hawk Arps (see above) but let me mention one more thing. Hawk's quartet was only two! He was beleagured by that frequent difficulty--the availability of accompanying musicians. At the last moment, two of the quartet had serious family emergencies and Hawk lost his bass and guitar players. So it was Hawk on vibes and a return of the talented local percussionist, Jami Cordova, who had also accompanied Karjam. This was a serious disappointment and difficulty for any auditioner, but Hawk adjusted, rose to the occasion as the professional he is, and it was here that we enjoyed more of his original compositions.
Day 4 - THURSDAY MAY 3, 2007
1:00 P.M. PATRICIA HARRIS
Patricia Harris missed her first audition and that might have been the end of that, but the school principal came to us personally and explained that Patricia missed it because of starting a new job and difficulty getting a ride. He told us that she had been working for weeks with a mentor, a local singer that was helping her get ready. He asked if we would consider how important this moment was in her life, how hard she had worked for it. Well, who could resist, and hey, it's not always about the rules is it? The whole purpose of Artist Advance is to encourage creativity and talent development. So we said yes.
Patricia has always really loved music, but she hadn't sung much – a little in school choir – so she really sweated, a lot, to get songs ready for a solo audition. She confessed to being so nervous she felt sick, and I'm sure there were others who auditioned who could identify with that! She said she loves all music: pop, rock, old R&B, country.
Like Angel, Patricia also sang accompanied by a CD with her favorite artists singing. She used a mic and we heard her very well. This was a first time singer, remember, so she was a little wobbly, but her hard work not only showed, it paid off for her. Her first song was Kerry Underwood's Jesus Take The Wheel. During her performance, one of those “moments” happened with Patricia Harris, that we all need to keep in mind. The hair stood up on my arms and neck, and I choked up, tears ran down my face. I looked at the others watching, three out of four were also tearful and it was obvious that the producer was very touched as well. It wasn't her beginner's voice, it had nothing to do with talent, or experience, or professionalism. The case of nerves didn't matter at all. It was what she communicated. I didn't know a thing about this young high school student but, when she sang this song, I felt what it meant to her from the depths of her life.
It was because of this, that hers was a truly stand-out audition. She went on to sing Tower of Song by Leonard Cohn, and an a cappella song from choir, Down In The River; her heart was in each song. Music is about the courage to communicate, to share your voice with others, and Patricia really did this. When she finished I asked her about that first song that moved us all so deeply. She said when she lost her mother from her life, she began to sing that song to connect with her mother, wherever she might be. It helped her feel comforted and close to her mother when she felt lonely or sad. Even before the explanation, we got it. So, heart and authentic vision are the real communicators, not just talent or skills.
4:00 P.M. FELIPE RAMIRO CARBONELL
Felipe Carbonell has a ways to go before he is a singer. But he told us that up front. He said he didn't enter to win the audition, and that he wasn't really interested in becoming a singer, but he entered because he thought it would be a really cool experience and he wanted to check it all out. He sang a cappella, no mic, quietly and hesitantly, pretty much in tune. The first song was Leaving on a Jet Plane (as sung by Jewel, he said, and I could recognize some of the phrasing.... ). Then he sang Paul McCartney’s Beautiful Soul. He ended with a portion of a song in Spanish because he was born in Chile – he’s been on Lopez for 12 years.
Musically, Felipe loves most everything, 'but not as much rap because it’s usually about complaining' ... he loves music that makes him feel happy. Felipe travels a lot, 19 countries so far ... he just got back from Belize and the Grand Camans. He's good at history and geography, not as good at math and science. His dream is to learn as many languages as possible and become a Chilean Ambassador. Felipe is 15. This is a really terrific kid, and we got all carried away chatting with him, and lost track of time. He wasn't the best musical audition, but he's a pretty darn interesting young man, and very interested in life. The feeling I had with Felipe was that he would accomplish something of note and I'd remembered that he once auditioned for Lopez Artist Advance when he was young.
5:15 P.M. JOHN SEABOLT
About the time we were finishing up with Felipe, John Seabolt came in with various hard cases and trunks. John wasn't on the audition roster but he worked right across the street from the school, at Sunset Builders, and had just learned about the auditions. He came over after work on the chance that we'd let him audition, said he played harmonica. We told him we just weren't likely to do a CD of harmonica tunes and he agreed that he'd thought that unlikely, but said he'd still enjoy auditioning in case we needed a harmonica player sometime – he’d like to do more studio and/or band work. Well, we were there, someone else had just cancelled so there was time, we were already in the mode, so we said why not. John's an excellent harmonica player, with lots of harps and lots of tricky licks. Anyone needing good harmonica would do well to call John.
6:00 P.M. KEVIN AND KEVIN
Hi-jinx could be the group name for Kevin Lundy and Kevin Dengler, if they were a group – which they weren't exactly – they had expected another vocalist who ended up not being with them. They called themselves The High Tankers (minus the other vocalist). Kevin L. was just learning electric guitar and he put a lot into it, was coming along nicely, but had a way to go, I'd say. But hey, he's young (high school) and he's a good performer. Kevin D. could hold lead vocals if he gives them more careful attention, but he played guitar very well and was also a strong performer. There was great energy, fun, and love of music and they were pretty infectious. So great musical hi-jinx, lots of fun songs. They did a high-spirited version of Madonna's Like a Virgin, for instance. We all laughed a lot and enjoyed them enough to request a couple more songs. They were just kind of irresistible and irrepressible. There couldn't have been a better way to end the Lopez Artist Advance auditions.
