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Valerie Orth : Described as “soulful, genuine, and edgy” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and an “indie folk powerhouse” by Bend’s Source Weekly, Valerie Orth is a fearless and genre-bending songwriter. Her distinctive hybrid of rock, groove, soul, and folk reaches out and grabs your attention; her live performances captivate and charm at once.
Rich with melody and metaphor, “her songs and vocalizations are unpredictable and highly original,“ writes the Jefferson Agrarian. “Just when you think she’s going to settle into a familiar groove, off she flies into the stratosphere with phrasings you never saw coming.”
Valerie understands song as revolution, whether personal or political, and as evolution, creating change within herself and the possibility for it within her listeners. Her tunes move nimbly between darkness and light, hope and despair, taking deft turns of phrase along unforeseen rhythmic twists in the road. And her calls to action, for compassion, or to a distant lover in a faraway city, are all expressed with equal clarity and conviction.
Tonight’s show celebrates the release of her new CD, Faraway City, which features Scott Amendola (Charlie Hunter) on drums, Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls) on piano and organ, and Jon Evans (Tori Amos) on bass and electric guitar. Produced by Evans, it amply displays Valerie's range as composer, lyricist, and singer.
Emily Wells: I love rap music and Vivaldi. Nina Simone and Biggie Smalls make my world go round. The first record i really, you know, heard, in headphones, was Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence". I play the violin and have since i was a little kid. Growing up, my home was filled with music. There was a lot of singing, french horn playing, and symphony listening, plus youth orchestras, church choirs and xylophones. I used to listen to the classic rock station in a three up front car with my two best friends, the windows cracked and the Indiana winter creeping in. I was born in Texas.
I love the studio, it could very well be my favorite place, (especially when it's raining). So I do a lot of live sampling and looping in an attempt to bring the studio to the stage. All the live looping is like a sporting event, or keeping the first take of every recording. I could fall off the balance beam... Which makes it all so much more exciting.
I really like to make beats, sample old records, but I often leave the beats up to my favorite drummer, Sam. Joey is the bass player and together we make a live trio. I started playing with them both a couple of years ago while making my first record "Beautiful Sleepyhead and the Laughing Yaks." Even though I made and released a number of cassette tapes and CDs before that, I call "Sleepyhead" the first because all the others were similar to going to college. Very important, very influential to my future, but mostly, they were about learning. I recently released "The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties", which consists of 10 songs heavily influenced by classical music and hip hop production. The new release of "Dirty", an EP, blends those same lines, most obviously with the cover of Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy". "Dirty" also includes an unreleased remix of "symphony 9" and a song we've been playing live forever, "Take it Easy San Francisco".
I'm interested in old or odd instruments, samplers and synthesizers, mallets, and analogue reverb. I collect toy pianos, though I only have a few. I'm interested in songs, and word play, and sonatas. I'm curious.... Most of all, I'm grateful for every day I get to make music.
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