Joanne Louise Parker (Vocals, Guitar .. and the odd bit of drumming..)... with a bit of help occassionally from Josh Jewsbury (Bass, Double Bass, Guitar), Kate Hopper (Piano and backing vocals), Dennis Vitalis (Piano and a very broad smile :) ), John Gransden (Guitar), Liz Holland (Jazzy Piano and backing vocals), Paul Dunton (piano and backing vocals), Griff Rising (Guitar, Mandolin and probably anything he picks up and can play!)..
Influences
Kate Bush, Sarah McLachlan, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Sarah Harmer, Sarah Slean, Annie Lennox, June Tabor, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, The Police, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tori Amos, P J Harvey, Suzanne Vega, Take Five, Handel, Bach, Edith Piaf, Barbara, Nina Simone, Clannad and many, many more...
Joanne Louise Parker’s forte is a cappella where silence has been known to roll like mist through a chattering room during a performance. Fans say that she has a voice which “makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck”.
Bought up against the harsh, yet beautiful landscape of the flat Cambridgeshire Fenland, her musical apprenticeship has been rich and varied ranging from classical, through folk and jazz to popular music. “I had an excellent grounding in harmony after singing chamber choir Opus XVI – in a small choir there is no hiding place!” After moving on to more contemporary music providing backing vocals for the trip hop band Auburn, she re-discovered Joni Mitchell, while nursing a hot chocolate in a Vancouver Island coffee house. After a 9 month search for musicians prepared to work with Mitchell’s de-tuned compositions; she staged a sell out concert of Mitchell’s earlier songs in a remote 12th Century Church.
Joanne’s own folk roots blues style combines observation of the natural, spiritual and emotional landscape. A regular on the open mic scene in both the UK and overseas, she has travelled extensively and performed her songs to audiences great and small from the West Coast of the US to as far east as Russia.
Her live EP was recorded after an impromptu visit to Lestats’ Coffee House in San Diego on the advice of friend San Diego singer/songwriter Mark Intravaia. The show’s host Isaac Cheong was a bit taken a back when this English accented person walked up and asked to play! Normally Lestats have a “two songs and you’re off rule!” for some reason, they let me stay on stage to sing three! “
The EP contains perfect example of what you can expect from Joanne’s live performance. The unaccompanied Worshippers of Ice is a haunting song about the speed skaters of the fens. While Movie Star and Burned Your Bridges are accompanied on a Gibson guitar leant to her by a fellow open mic singer.
Joanne is currently planning a mystical tour of venues of architectural and acoustic interest with fellow singer/songwriter Paul Dunton. Entitled “Acoustic, Rhythm & Pews”, this mystical tour will take in three ancient churches. There are plans to extend the tour to other venues and to encompass stately homes as well as an old haunted shipyard!
