| Lisa Marie The Chick From the Motor City |
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| No she is not a hippie but was a "flower child" - Born in the 60's, that is.... |
| It all started at the early age of five when I was standing in my living room singing "Jumpin' Jack Flash" to one of my older brother's record albums (no they didn't have CD's back then) That's when I realized (and my family too) that I had a "Gift From God" and a singer was born! After my mother had discovered this whenever company came over I was summoned to the living room to sing a tune or two. This got old after a while so I joined the school choir and along with that "Sing Out Dearborn". This was a youth singing group in my community that was a spin off of the "Up With People" national group that toured the world and use to do shows such as the Super Bowl half-time before they went "Hollywood" and started booking Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, (you get the picture). I had lots of fun with this group and made a lot of strange but cool friends. We were a non-profit group that owned our own sound, stage, and lighting and the TRUCK to haul it in. And we had a great band (which I was part of for a while trying to play keyboards) to back the singers and dancers up. Besides the matching uniforms it was a pretty cool group back then. I even advanced to choreographing dance numbers and being Choral Director for a couple of years. Sing Out has sinced folded (dissolved) which is too bad cause I think it was a fun avenue for kids to use their talents and (somewhat) keep out of trouble. After doing all that stuff I proceeded to go on to college (which I never finished) to study music. This was very discouraging to me cause so many of the other students were much more advanced than I (since I was a "Vocal Music Major") and I quit after a couple of years. But I did learn some theory, piano, sight-singing, and had private voice training that took me to another level singing Italian Operettas in Metzo Soprano range and going on voice competitions at various Universities. Then came the Rock and Roll, which was MUCH MORE FUN!!! I joined my first rock band and I instantly fell in love (not with the guitar player) but the MUSIC. This was going to be MY thing and I took the world by storm! I started out with a fun little band called The Weekend Runaways. It was alright but I think the guys were getting a little burned out from being together too long and other personal "issues" so I only did that project for about a year. After that I moved in with my boyfriend at the time and we played music together alot. He'd get his little four track recorder out and we had lots of fun. We jammed with some other guys for a while but not much came of that. But he was a local DJ and got me hooked doing that and then I started hosting karaoke shows too. Shortly after that we split up and I was the "girl gone wild". I hung out alot with all sorts of characters and would sit in with various local bands. Then I read an add in the Metro Times (this is Detroit's version of The Reader) for a band named Bedrock that was looking for a female vocalist. I headed downriver for the audition and there was an instant chemistry. We proceeded to play many of the local venues and put on a rockin' show! The whole band was wireless and ran around the audience and really got the crowd going! That band lasted for about two years and then I met my husband Joe and decided to move to Chicago unfortunately leaving family, friends, and "Detroit City Classic Rock" behind. That's when the early 90's were booming and everything was heavy altenative and grunge. Not my thing. I auditioned for a couple of bands soon after I moved to Chi Town but couldn't find anything I liked. I noticed a big trend here besides the grunge and obviously blues and jazz was "Tribute Bands"! I had never heard of that until I moved out here. I think I've seen at least 20 different "Tribute Bands" since I've moved here. It gets old after a while. Anyway I went on to take a ten year hiatus to get married and have a couple of kids but still continued to DJ and host karaoke. Then after sitting in with a couple of local bands I got "THE ITCH" again and started Driving With Strangers in May of 2003 and haven't looked back since. I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to jam with! Excellent, seasoned musicians that dig my sorta music! What more could a girl ask for? Joe, Glenn, Tony, and I all have great chemistry together and a certain professional comraderie that takes my performances to another level. Check out one of our shows sometime and you'll see what I mean! |