Author Archives: Jill Newman

Concert Series at Eagle Haven Winery – Saturday September 15th

with special guest Margaret Wilder

Saturday   September 15th

7pm – 9pm

8243 Sims Rd.

Sedro-Woolley, Washington

http://www.eaglehavenwinery.com/events.html

From I-5 North or South:
Exit 230 at Burlington or Exit 232 for Cook Road alternate route.
East on North Cascades Highway (HWY 20).
Approximately 4 miles east of Sedro-Woolley at Sims Road, take a right.
Eagle Haven Winery is on your left. The Winery is in the red building.

From the East on North Cascades Highway (HWY 20):
Travel West on Highway 20.
At Sims Road, take a left.
Eagle Haven Winery is on your left. The Winery is in the red building.   

Blues with a view

I’m reminded of what a beautiful part of the world we live in after my most recent show at the Eaglemont Golf Course. The restaurant and patio are set high on top of a hillside in a lush, woodsy area of Mount Vernon. We arrived for our Saturday early evening blues show with our usual carloads of PA equipment and gear. I travel with three guitars; my Danelectro which I use exclusively for slide, my Gibson which is my main axe because the fret board makes string bending easier than on most Fenders and my reclaimed redwood telecaster for those times that only a Telecaster will do.

As I began busily tuning my guitars, I turned away briefly to take in the view – and was in awe. From our tiny stage area set high above the valley, I saw a golf course surrounded by thick groves of evergreen trees that enveloped the steep rolling hills and in the distance was Puget Sound framed by the Olympic Mountains. We had a great show, with a lively and responsive crowd who were all too happy to listen to my eclectic, original songs while taking in a truly stunning view. At the end of the show as the sun began to set, we loaded our gear back into our cars – and I returned to the empty stage, to catch one more glimpse of the sun setting over the valley below. There’s nothing better than the Saturday night blues with a view.

Highway 99 Blues Club on Thursday May 31st

We’ll be rocking Seattle’s Highway 99 Blues Club on Thursday May 31st

with Kelly VanCamp, drums, harmonica & Melanie Owen, bass, vocals and featuring our special guest, Bellingham based keyboardist, RnB singer Margaret Wilder. Show starts at 8pm.

Highway 99 Blues Club
1414 Alaskan Way
Seattle, WA

Show: 8pm   Cover: $7

 

Announcing two new spring shows!

There’s something about sharing a performance with other women artists who I admire that inspires me to keep playing, singing and writing my own music.

We’ll be rocking Seattle’s Highway 99 Blues Club on Thursday May 31st

with KellyVanCamp, drums, harmonica & Melanie Owen, bass, vocals and featuring our special guest, Bellingham based keyboardist, RnB singer Margaret Wilder. Show starts at 8pm.

 

On Saturday June 16th , I’ll be playing in the Ladies Lead the Band show at the Madison Avenue Pub in Everett. Performances by Michele D’Amour and Margaret Wilder. These women know how to sing, write great songs and rock the house. Show starts at 7:30pm. More details coming soon!

Playing the blues at the Marysville Opera House

I am looking forward to my upcoming blues performance at the historic Marysville Opera House on Feb. 15, 2018. It was a blast playing there last September with band mates Kelly VanCamp drums, harmonica, vocals and Melanie Owen, bass, vocals.

As a blues guitarist, I’ve spent my career playing a lot of bars and not always performing in places where patrons are there to listen to the music. In one particularly rough bar several years ago, the manager told me that he hires bands to keep the patrons from fighting – not exactly what I had in mind when I set out to write and perform my own songs. While I prefer to play shows in which the audience wants to hear good music, it’s a reality in this business that sometimes musicians, no matter the talent level, are simply there as background noise. That is why it’s such a pleasure to perform at events where folks are there for the music. But as I told our audience at our last opera house performance, there’s another reason why playing at the OH is so meaningful for me. As a parent of a young opera/classical singer who has performed on many big concert stages, I can finally say that I too have played music at an opera house – something not typical for most electric blues musicians. It feels like some kind of full circle and it makes it that much more special a performance.