|
ROCHELLE'S STORY
The short story is, in the summer of 2000 I decided to quit my job at the Zephyr Cove Resort on Lake Tahoe after two years of bliss and find "something" in the field of music. I had no idea what I was going to do. There was a pulse inside of me drawing me toward music. At this time I barely played the guitar and had only a few songs written that I would carelessly play in front of friends and family.
I drove to Ocean Springs, MS with a friend and my bestest buddy, Athena a Lab., Akita, Pekineese Mix that loved to travel, to "visit" my Mom.
Rain Jaudon and Donn Hupp were hosting Open Mic Nights at a couple of bars Ocean Springs' bars. When they asked if anyone had a request I yelled out, "yeah, how about an original"? and it was ON!
The summer of 2000 is one I will never forget. It was filled with excitement, comradery, and a passion for simply playing. It wasn't about which bar was going to book us or what agent was in the audience and might "discover us". (Well, ok maybe the agent part we did dream about:).
But we really were all caught up in sharing our original music which is really a part of who we are, what we have to say, what we want to share and how we connect with others.
|
Neil Saunders and Andy Lee had some awesome originals and Donn Hupp had his beautiful, heart breaking ballads and I was the new chick on the block who had just a few tunes to share. . . I was hooked by this form of expression and always will be.
My influences were the music of the 60's and 70's including, rock, pop, country and tons of vocalists: Bessie Smith, Billie, Nina, Edith, Dionne W., Donna Summers, Janis Joplin, "Blue Eyes"; Supertramp, life, and Lake Tahoe... God, Friends, Family, and the strength of an awesome dream to spread the love thru peace within music. (Check out each band member's own MySpace as their influence will be listed there: Gary Boz Boswell, David White, Derrell Brown and Rick Gamard.)
It wasn't only a scene of musicians but artists as well. Chris Marie Logan had a strong presence in the crowd of musicians. It's hard to say what she is specifically because she uses many mediums to express her art but for me, she would take a piece of clothing and turn it into a masterpiece that I wore and that people were wowed by. It was fun!!
Capturing the scene was a girl by the name of Cheli Strumuli. She had this idea of a paper that contained information about the local scene along the MS Gulf Coast. She would bring a camera and/or video recorder out to the gigs and tape us, photograph us and then put us in her paper.
|
You know the paper don't ya, the Coast (Nightlife) Observer.
Yep. That was Cheli!! Supporting all of us musicians and she hasn't stopped yet!!
That summer of 2000 turned into many years on the MS Gulf Coast, and I am soooo thankful for the experiences along the way and the songs. Each song is about someone, something, something real. It isn't just music and words. It is real.
I'm Searching (c)arh'07 Goodness. As a songwriter I consider all of the folks who have made an impression upon me as a sort-of, band member. That doesn't mean you get points or anything when the "album" comes out :). It means that so many of my songs have pieces of people I've loved, or learned from, or argued with, or was hurt by or inspired by.
Or it could be something as simple as an elderly man that I've never met before and haven't seen since, stopping at my driveway because he saw me playing my guitar, then playing the guitar and leaving and me trying to "cop" the riff he just played. Life stuff ya know?! We're all members of the One family anyway.
There's so much more to the story....Feel free to check out my songs they'll tell ya a little bit about the journey. Peace within Music and always, love.
CONTACT Rochelle Harper
|
