Orianthi receives award at 2013 NAMM Trade Show

Right now one of the hottest, rockin-est female guitar players on the music scene has to be Orianthi.

 

Photo courtesy of Dave Stewart

 

If you are not familiar with this guitar goddess feel free to view this tasty video of Ori trading licks with Steve Vai in “Highly Strung.” I'm sure you will be impressed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7b-_YcACuQ&feature=share&list=UUlFyN-SOQEK5QK9wodHQFeg

Orianthi (Panagaris) born was in Australia in 1985 and grew up in a home filled with music. She learned to play the acoustic guitar at 6 and moved to the electric guitar at around 9 years old. She was playing with bands at 14 and had the incredible experience of playing for Steve Vai at 15. Orianthi became interested in Carlos Santana's music and bought all his videos. She studied them over and over till the tapes were worn out and her dedication paid off. When Orianthi was 18 she got the opportunity to jam with Carlos and later he invited her up on stage where she played for about a half-hour.

Later, Carlos Santana brought her to the attention of Paul Reed Smith and she signed an endorsement agreement with his guitar brand. In 2006 she signed with Geffen Records. She has played at Eric Clapton's Crossroads and opened for Steve Vai. Orianthi was the lead guitar player for Carrie Underwood at the 51^st Grammy performance of “Last Name.” That performance caught the attention of Michael Jackson who hired her to be his guitarist for the This Is It tour which never took place due to his passing

In 2005 she released her first album Violet Journey.  On the album, Orianthi wrote all the music and lyrics, plus contributed guitar, drums and vocal tracks as well as doing the mixing in her home studio.
In 2009 she released the album Believe with the hit “According to You” which she performed in March 2010 on American Idol.

Right now Orianthi is tearing it up on tour with Alice Cooper. She has the honor of being the first female member of Alice Cooper's band. In a quote about her debut performance with Alice Cooper's band, a fan said “she gave a blistering performance....she's worthy, she's worthy.”

At this year's National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show Orianthi will be receiving the “She Rocks” award from the Women's International Music Network.

On March 12^th her new album Heaven in this Hell will be issued. Check her out as she performs the single “Frozen” on Fox News. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cLZSn4B7uQ&feature=youtu.be
 

In a quote from the website "Weekly," Orianthi says, ”I hope to inspire a lot more female guitar players. Just pick it up and keep on going. Even though it's a guy thing, it'll be really cool to see more girls out there kicking butt and rocking out”

And since INSPIRATION is what GuitarChics is all about, let Orianthi's story inspire you to be dedicated to YOUR passion, whether it's guitar playing or basketball or ballet. Become committed to your personal interests and maybe you will be blessed with good luck and great opportunities.

But you'll never get there if you don't put in the effort!

Silverwing's Mini-Vacation

Silverwing Band takes a mini-vacation

Well, January has been a slow month for Silverwing.  I think we played just about every weekend from July all the way to New Year's Eve.  But January only has one gig in it.  I'm going through withdrawals.  What will I do with all that time on my hands?

So during our mini-unexpected-vacation there are a few things the band is going to do:

Market our new CD "Moonshine"
The CD was printed at Disc Makers and it available at CD Baby, Amazon, our website and a few other outlets, but if no one knows about it, we won't have any sales.  So we did a great radio interview at the local country radio station, KHWG 750AM, Fallon, Nevada.  Ronzo, the morning DJ, invited us into the studio and between playing some of the songs, he asked each of us a few questions.  I won't deny it was nerve-wracking, but it's all part of the joy of getting to play music for a living.

Learn a few new cover songs
It's a good idea to keep the set list fresh, so we each picked out a new song to add to the set list.  Since we are a rockin' country bar band, we normally play from 8pm to midnight.  Four hours can be a long time and playing the same old set in the same old order can start to make the night drag.  So bringing in something new is a good idea.  I'm not sure the dancers always appreciate the effort it takes, but we are proud of ourselves even if the dancers have to go home and learn a few new steps off of YouTube.  It's good for them!

Work up some new material for the next CD
Silverwing can't sit around and wait for "Moonshine" to become a big seller.  We need to work on the next CD while we promote this one.  At this point we have a bunch of half completed tunes, some with no lyrics, some just a hook and a lead.  It's time to decide on our favorites and focus on completing them for the next CD.  Mel is going to get a CD together of snippets of songs and have each of us decide on our own which ones have the most promise.  Hopefully we can come to a consensus on about 10 or 12 songs.  Then we need to complete them and record them.  It's intimidating to create.  In Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit" she discusses the white room with nothing in it and how challenging it is.  Well that is the challenge of completing songs, can I make the lyrics better?  Is this good enough? Should I toss it in the trash and go sell french fries cause I am terrible?  Oh, the mind can think some terrible stuff. 

So our mini-vacation from playing gigs is going to be very busy and I'm happy about that. Playing music is so satisfying and as a formerly shy person it has changed my life.

Check out the CD "Moonshine" by Silverwing at CD Baby. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/silverwing You can purchase the whole CD with the nifty art work or download one song at a time.  If you know an old cowboy, he'll probably love "Wide Open Spaces"  It is a crowd pleaser.

Stop by the website and leave us a message at www.silverwingband.com.  Check out our schedule for a gig near you. 

Thanks,
Mary Warstler, rhythm guitar player and songwriter