Friday, February 14, 2014

Sonya Jevette Gets All Sultry at the MusikCircus

Sonya was back a few weeks ago but she was really, really back last night.  There were some bumps getting started but they were not Sonya's fault as I'm highly sure she was a victim of the network being a bitch because it didn't have a date for Valentine's Day.  So we did a little fiddling up front to help her get her levels right and then on with the show.

There is a large crop of skinny white girls singing pop songs now and that's ok as kids like that but the problem for anyone else is that all of them sound almost exactly the same.  Sonya sounds like no-one but Sonya from the first note she sings and the sound is unforgettably beautiful.  So you can listen to a kid sing or you can listen to a woman and only a woman can give you sultry, a kid doesn't even know what the word means yet.

Sonya plays her own accompaniment and what's very unusual is that she often plays some lead.  Sure you can point to examples of women who play lead in RL rock bands but you'll find precious few who do it in Second Life.  In fact, I'm pretty sure Sonya is the only one.  She's got a big ol' Gibson ES-335 and the lady has come to play.  (That's similar to what B.B. King plays.)

What really sets Sonya apart is her singing and it's that little touch of vibrato that catches you.  I don't believe she charts when to use vibrato and when not but rather she has the simpatico.  She just knows.  If she used too much then it would become some corny Hollywood product but if she didn't use it at all then her music would be less.  Vibrato is a very high art and Sonya is exceptionally good at it.  (Vibrato is when you make a note 'warble' just a little bit and it's similar to using a twang bar on a note on a guitar.)

So I'm most pleased to tell you that Sonya Jevette has returned to Cat's Art MusikCircus and she will be back every two weeks on Thursday.  In a world that's full of lazy people playing Velveeta music (i.e. karaoke with backing from commercial SPAM tracks), Sonya has been out there paying her musical dues for years.  She plays, she learns those chords, and she takes that everywhere she possibly can to work.  Something you don't hear too much these days is about 'paying your dues' but Sonya can tell you all about that.

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