Review: Heather Waters

Rarely have we seen an artist perform with such emotion. The connection between voice, lyric and melody was so moving. The best way to experience it is to watch the video below...

Watch a video of her performing at the house concert.

Booked: Rachanee

Life-changing revelations can come at odd moments. For singer/songwriter Rachanee, it was during a job interview.

Unable to choose between pursuing a career in music or a career in photojournalism, her mentor and interviewer Nancy suggested she flip a coin to decide which one to focus on for a year. "But," Nancy warned Rachanee, "picking one means completely giving up the other. So if it comes up photography, you stop writing songs, you quit the band, you put away your guitar... are you ready?"

Rachanee replied, "Don't flip the coin." And that one little decision sparked the pursuit of a dream.

Though Rachanee just came on the independent music scene in 2003, she hasn't been idle. That year, she released her EP "Chosen Path," which she wrote, distributed and co-produced. In 2004 she released her first full-length LP, "Ordinary Girl." Her sophomore album, "3 am," was released in May of 2007.

She has been featured in the Lansing (MI) State Journal, in the Noise (a Lansing, Michigan weekly newspaper), on WILX-TV 10 in Lansing, and on WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit, MI. Songs from her 2004 release "Ordinary Girl" are being featured on College, AAA, and Christian radio stations around the country. The title track, "Ordinary Girl," debuted at #11 on KTLF in Colorado and went to #1 for three consecutive weeks on WPFF in Michigan and Wisconsin.

"Here with Me" from Rachanee's debut album "Ordinary Girl" was named Best Contemporary Christian Song for the 2006 Independent Music Awards. Another song from her debut album, "From Here," placed second in the 2006 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest. And Rachanee’s latest release, “3 am,” was also a finalist for Best Contemporary Christian Album in the 2008 Independent Music Awards, while one of the new album's featured songs, "Leap of Faith," was a finalist in the 2007 USA Songwriting Competition.

Rachanee's music has a guitar-driven folk/rock feel, and her heartfelt lyrics appeal to any audience. She is comfortable in any venue, having played in various bookstores, churches, clubs, bars and coffeehouses around the country. Touring constantly to support her two releases, she plays live either solo or as part of a duo, with her husband on percussion.

It is with great pleasure that we announce Rachanee's upcoming performance at the BloomBox House Concert Series on Saturday, June 21st at 6:00 PM (view Evite).

Visit Rachanee's site.

Booked: Heather Waters

Every once in a rare moment of time, you stumble across singers who still surrounding noise simply by raising their voice. Their power doesn’t lie in their ability to outshout competition (although a talent for generating superhuman volume a la Little Feat’s Shaun Murphy is certainly impressive). It’s in their gift for connection. They grab listeners’ ears and compel them to pay attention by resolutely turning inward and excavating all the passion and poetry they find churning within themselves. Heather Waters has that gift.
--Pasadena Weekly

Touring the Midwest with her soulfully moving style, singer/songwriter HEATHER WATERS will be performing at the BloomBox House Concert Series next month. With a voice that’s been said to "rise out of the American soil, melancholy yet resilient, immediate yet timeless," Waters, accompanied by her songwriting partner Rich McCulley on acoustic guitar, is sure to deliver a convincing, powerful performance.

A Chicago native, Waters left the Windy City and set out for Boston’s singer/songwriter community, where her seamless blend of blues, bluegrass and traditional country caught the attention of veteran Bonnie Raitt bassist, Hutch Hutchinson, who went on to produce her debut EP. After touring the East Coast, she moved onto Nashville where she sang backup harmonies on Delbert McClinton’s 2002 Grammy-nominated album. Heather continued to find herself singing alongside many accomplished musicians, including the famed Emmylou Harris. Leaving the South and transplanting to Los Angeles, where she currently resides, Heather flourished as an artist and independently recorded her first full-length cd “Shadow of You.” Waters’ second cd “Propeller” is scheduled to be released next month and boasts even deeper R&B grooves and some righteous gospel fervor.

Receiving airplay across the United States, as well as in Finland, Italy, France, The Netherlands, and Belgium, Waters’ music has drawn rave reviews from media outlets nationwide. The Boston Globe wrote that Heather “couldn’t hit a sour note if she tried; the L.A. Daily News touted Waters as having “a sigh-catching voice as evocative as Emmylou Harris',” and Performing Songwriter said, “The dark, smoky twang of her vocals complements the compositions, which are mellow - sometimes downright mournful - but always satisfying;”

The BloomBox House Concert Series is pleased to announce Heather’s upcoming, must-see performance on Saturday, April 19th at 6:00 PM (view Evite).

Visit Heather's site.

REVIEW: Greg Trooper / Jim&Jody Bustamante

Well, what can we say!! 'Troop' was on top of his game!  Combining top-shelf songwriting with his own brand of humor was a winning combination!  Oh, and let's not forget a bit of yodeling!!!  And in a house concert first - an encore by request, which actually turned into a duet with a loyal fan come all the way from Milwaukee just to see Greg!  Check out a few videos of Greg from the event at YouTube.com/AngryLaughter (thanks to Sam Tang).

Warming up the place before Greg took the stage - Jim and Jody Bustamante.  Long-time friends were superb.  They were so cool and played so well, we all thought for sure they must be in the midst of world tour, having polished their craft.  So we didn't know if we should believe them when they said they don't play very often at all.  And talk about harmonies - you have to hear it to believe the way their voices blend.

Photos: Robert Bracher