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ALICE
COOPER calls WENSDAY, "The OTHER girl next door."
A
sultry and sweet chanteuse one minute, a bold and edgy rocker the
next, singer/songwriter Wensday brings a magical multiple personality
to a debut album and an exciting new musical hybrid, "Torch
Rock™."
Wensday
is an exotic young woman of contrasts: she's been a body piercing
artist, a jazz singer and a rocker – and Associate Director
of All Children's Theatre in her hometown of Providence, Rhode Island.
A graduate of NYU and a student at Oxford University, Wensday is
covered in eloquent artistic tattoos on more than 50% of her body.
Multiple
hit songwriter and legendary guitarist DICK WAGNER
(Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Kiss, Aerosmith, Air Supply) produced TORCH
ROCK™ and wrote or co-wrote all 13 tracks of the TORCH ROCK™
album. Wagner plays lead guitar throughout the CD; and he has assembled
a brilliant group of musicians, including Fred Mandel
(Elton John, Queen, Alice Cooper), Bobby Flores
(Grammy winning arranger and Country Instrumentalist of the Year),
Nils Lofgren (Bruce Springsteen), to record Wensday's
musical debut.
"After
a long time trying to figure out what style I do best, I truly get
to do it all on Torch Rock," says Wensday. "I think the
album conveys that I'm a singer, first and foremost... Connecting
emotionally with people is the most important thing to me."
Wensday
had her coming out party during the 2006 holiday season at Christmas
Pudding, the annual event Alice Cooper puts on
for Solid Rock Foundation, the organization he started to benefit
local youths. Sharing a bill with Don Felder, Stephen
Stills and pop metal band Tesla, Wensday
moved the crowd with her searing rendition of "Only Women Bleed,"
the classic ballad Cooper wrote with longtime collaborator and legendary
guitarist Dick Wagner. WENSDAY'S powerful take on "Only Women
Bleed" draws fresh and renewed attention to its enduring theme
of empowering women to overcome the cycle of domestic abuse.
A
huge fan of Wensday's from the moment he first heard her sing, Wagner
produced, wrote, co-wrote and played guitar on all 13 tracks of
Torch Rock.
Wagner
tells us, "Wensday has a voice that bridges the world of rock/blues
with jazz and country. Wensday embodies a new genre of music that
combines the new with the old, in which romance and hard edge combine
to create a fresh and passionate new music that I call, 'Torch Rock.'
This is a voice that can rock your world and then soothe your wounds
right after."
Speaking
about her powerful creative chemistry with Wagner, Wensday says,
"It's an honor to work with Dick, who is a legendary writer
and musician, but I think of myself as something of an old soul,
so it's a good match. Most of the songs are about love, relationships
and female empowerment, all issues that are meaningful to me."
Wensday
gravitated early to the "torchy" part of Torch Rock, developing
an intense love of jazz, particularly the music of Ella Fitzgerald
and Billie Holiday, from her parents' extensive record collection
and her first voice teacher at age 13.
One
day, after having put singing on hold for a time to focus on her
other creative endeavors,, she happened into a vintage store in
Massachusetts, saw a gorgeous 1940s cocktail dress, thought about
Billie Holiday and knew she had to get back to singing. "I
played with many different jazz ensembles all over New England,"
she says, "and also fronted my own band Miss Wensday
and the Medicinals. Oh, and of course, I bought the dress!"
"I
was very happy with my life in Providence," she says.
"I loved the balance of working with children during the day
and singing in nightclubs at night. I was about to cut a jazz album
when everything happened with Desert Dreams Records. It's never
been about fame and money for me because those only follow when
you do what you love. I just want people to like it and to understand
where I am coming from. That's what this great journey is all about."
--Jonathan
Widran, February 2007