Album Notes

Voice and bass. That’s it?

“Sure, why not?” says singer Rhonda Withnell. “You’d be amazed at the versatility a ‘band’ like this offers to an audience, and we are a band, no question. All the same basic ingredients are there that any band has regardless of its size – melody, harmony and rhythm.”

It doesn’t seem possible that the chanteuse in front of a big band could be the same voice as the smoke-hued singer leading a band of ne’er-do-wells at the local blues bar. But it is. It is a voice that you would remember if you were brave enough to attend TINFest, put on by Edmonton’s free improv community every summer. And it is also a voice that you hear live and on the radio with naught but an acoustic bass, played by Don Bradshaw, recorded and released in 2005 as “Once Was”. Inspired by the great voices of modern music, singers like Shirley Horn, Sheila Jordan and Mercedes Sosa, Rhonda is open to newer sounds and counts Canada’s indie darling Leslie Feist as a current favourite. All this diversity adds up to a singer who can and will do more than you might expect.

Rhonda’s primary musical compatriot, bassist Don Bradshaw, has finally been receiving the attention he deserves as a virtuoso on the most unforgiving of all instruments. Don’s influences have been many - “pretty well anyone that I’ve ever heard who plays like they mean it” says Don. That would mean Dave Holland and Stanley Clarke to Edgar Meyer to Chris Squire and a lot in between, not just on bass.