|
"Intimate and honest" - Jim Musser, Press Citizen
"An Intoxicating breeze of song that blows clean and true." Joe Derdarian, Little Village
"Irene's voice sounds like an angel... and her song-writing is reminiscent of Leonard Cohen." -Iowa City Mud River Music Festival
"A playful and pleasant feminine counterpart to the overly masculine singer-songwriter scene."- Little Village
"Irene's clarinet soloing has moved me." -Gamal, Art Blakey's son/manager
"Unremittingly beautiful. Irene and The Mad River Band's debut CD 'Shivers' is one of Iowa's best releases of the year."- Jim Musser, Music Critic, Iowa City Press Citizen
"I believe art is about affecting people. Irene has this ability with her audience. She can make them feel like a soaring eagle or a just-baked chocolate chip cookie!" -M.C. Ginsberg, Founder Iowa City Jazz Festival
"She's just as great as Lucinda Williams!" Iowa Women's Music Festival
Irene Rachel is currently performing solo... occasionally with special guests... in Iowa City in the Spring and Fall months and in The Mad River Valley of Vermont in the Winter. She is utilizing a loop station, so as to play guitar and clarinet while singing, promoting her newest and most jazzy album, "All She's Got", recorded with Joe Rebik and Mark Urness in 2007.
While in Iowa in the Spring/Fall, Irene teaches Bicycle Touring and Wilderness Appreciation classes for The University of Iowa. She hopes to perform again with her band or duo, The Mad River Band, when the opportunity presents itself.
Irene and her duo and band have been on the Iowa Arts Council's Touring Roster since 2005. Any Iowa organization or school may apply for grant funding to hire them for performances or clinics. Visit www.iowaartscouncil.org for more information.
From 2001 to 2007 The Mad River Duo and The Mad River Band were performing for festivals and venues around the Iowa City area playing original songs with an organic blend of jazz-folk-rock and blues. When Irene and Joe performed as a The Mad River Duo, they would often ride bikes to their shows, pulling each a hundred pounds of equipment on trailers and in panniers.
The band's name came from Irene's reverence for the Mad River Valley, where she first began to write songs and play guitar and even write the book of her 20,000-mile self-contained bicycle trek from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. Though not published, the book, entitled "Chasing Dangerado", in a spiritual sense 'freed' Irene to compose music, songs often written about this famous trek- about nature and riding and love and love lost. Irene has studied music from the age of three and even remembers reading music before reading english, as her mother was an organist and private piano teacher. She was told as a child that she was named after the famous Ledbelly song, "Goodnight, Irene" which her parents heard on the radio and sang to her. This may be the reason that music became so special to her, ultimately her passion and companion. Her parents, in their attempt to educate their daughters, took them to Greg Brown concerts, outdoor shows, endless musicals, and formulated their own family band, the Lutheran-based- "Schroeder Family Band". How embarrassing! Irene loved music and could hardly wait to start playing the swinging, soul-wrenching clarinet in the school and get out of the hymnal-based-songs which taught her much about harmonizing and put her way ahead of all the other children. While playing lead clarinet in the Tama school bands, she met her musical match/muse, Joe Rebik, who played percussion with meticulous rythym that "people are simply born with". Irene spent years playing the bass organ while he played drums in the jazz band. This was mostly due to the unfortunate and incorrect Midwestern stereo-typing that the clarinet was not a jazz instrument. She then played piano for the jazz band in her new high school in Des Moines, still hoping to some day play jazz clarinet. She also became passionate about singing jazz and swing, was clarinet concert master of her high school band and youth orchestra, awarded the top honors in music, and was offered college scholarships in clarinet and singing.
Irene attended the University of Iowa in both Environmental Engineering and Clarinet Performance from 1989-1993. Music came more naturally to her, so she studied jazz and contemporary and received her BM with honors in 1993. Her plans to bicycle from the tip of North America to the tip of South American with partner Brain Hannon took her temporarily out of engineering school, and the school even provided her with a small scholarship for the journey. However, the connection she made with Nature that she had experienced for 17 months cycling ultimately took her focus away from Iowa society, so she did not return to School. Her partner from the trip left her, and her father's suicide attempt soon followed, leaving Irene in a bit of mental upset.
Irene once again turned to music and cycling for love, release and compassion. She founded the "The Irene Schroeder Jazz Quintet" in Iowa City and dominated Iowa bike races in 1994/95, becoming the rider of the year and the USCF Cycle-cross Champoin for two years. During this time, Irene engineered a miking system for her clarinet and played acid-jazz clarinet in an all-female lounge band "Idela"... while refusing to ride in a car or gas-powered vehicle for many years. In 1997, she bicycled to Alta, Utah and became a ski bum, sitting in with bands at the Alta Peruvian Lodge, Utah and sking for 100 days in a row.
Irene longed for a more environmental ski resort, so in 1998 she bicycled to Alaska and then took the train to Vermont, mailing her belongings. She found a job at the ski area Mad River Glen, in the Mad River Valley. During this time, she wrote her book about her 20,000 mile bike trip.. performed clarinet with the Jounston College jazz funk band "People" and learned to play guitar and write lyrics with Joe Rebik, who had come to Vermont to court her.
After all of these experiences learning to love life in all it's unpredictable glory, Irene was able to live her dream as a clarinetist in The Mad River Duo and Band. She moved back to Iowa City to play music with her muse, Joe Rebik
However, as it would turn out, Irene's lead guitarist was Iowa native Blane Anderson, who had played with her in almost all her bands. They performed weekly for the famous romantic organic/vegan restaurant "The Red Avocado". When Blane became a father of twins and a dedicated Iowa City pilot, Joe Rebik came back into Irene's musical life, with his talents not only on lead guitar, but also on vibes and drums. Other musicians came and went in the Mad River Band- Tom Chute, Anton Hatwich- all very wonderful!!
During 2001-2007, Irene and The Mad River Band toured the State of Iowa wowing audiences with their original songs and clarinet solos. Irene and Joe produced five albums, which are listed below. Wayne Fett, at the University of Iowa, recognizing Irene's talents with biking, hired her in 2002 to lead bike touring classes and mountain bike classes for Touch The Earth Life-Time Leisure Skills Classes, a relationship that still exists and is growing to include outdoor adventure trips like Wilderness Appreciation and Backcountry Telemark Skiing.
A very special song goes out to Blane Anderson's family and friends as February 2008 marks the year anniversary of his passing in the tragic plane crash in Grinnell, Iowa. The band misses you, Blane, and we promise to keep you in our musical hearts, right where you've always been!
~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~
Under their own label 'Bicichica Productions,' (bicichica means bike chick in Chilean Spanish) Irene and Joe have self-released all their albums.
Debut Album, 2001, "Shivers" which includes all six original band members and original songs by Irene. This albums was voted one of the top releases in Iowa City adn was supported in part by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council.
Album number two, 2003, "Find Some Love," features the Mad River Duo with Mark Urness on double bass, 11 songs by Irene and Joe.
Album number three, a ragtime feature, "Grace and Beauty" came out in 2003 with pianist and song arranger Grace Schroeder, Irene's mother!
Album number four, 2005, "Conflict" is Irene's solo CD with bass clarinet improvisation over a recorded Iowa Thunderstorm- a favorite amongst massage therapists.
Album five, 2007, "All She's Got," is the best yet with heartbreaking jazz-groove songs.
Please email Irene if you would like to purchase these CDs.
As of 2007, The Mad River Band included Irene Rachel on clarinet, guitar and vocals, Laurie Haag on bass guitar, Brian Cooper on drums and Joe Rebik on guitar, vibes and vocals. It is of note that everyone in this configuration, except Laurie, is from Tama, Iowa!
Irene's website that needs some attention- can you help? www.themadriverband.com
Irene currently teaches private music lessons- piano, guitar, singing-songwriting and all the clarinets, of course. email irene@themadriverband.com
Irene's other passions- *extreme cycling* (road/trails/all-mountain/touring/traveling/commuting) *telemark back-country skiing* (free the heal and ski off-piste!).
She has over 120,000 miles in her legs and loves being out in Nature! She owns her own repair and consulting company called "Bicycle Happiness & Snow Fun." If you need help being happy with your ride, email irene@themadriverband.com
~***~***~Music Festivals and 'Concerts of Note'~***~***~
Iowa City Jazz Festival
Iowa Women's Music Festival
Mud River Music Festival
Moab's Fine Arts Festival
Des Moines Arts Festival
Iowa City Arts Festival
Exodus Music Festival
Grinnell Festival of the Arts
CSPS Legion Arts
Fairfield Fourth of July
Coralville Fourth of July
The Englert Theater New Year's Eve
Von Trapp Family Lodge New Year's Eve
Iowa City Bike-to-Work-Week Celebration
Iowa's RAGRAI 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
|
