Photos From The Show

Our friend Merici Trujillo did some beautiful shots of the Yoshi's gig on May 19th. You can really get a sense of the fun we had that night - everyone sounded amazing. We had some terrific guest musicians, Rob Strom, Julie Wolf and Shelley Doty. We'll post some video soon in case you missed the show or just want to go back there with me... Enjoy!

Yoshi's (Oakland) May 19th - a rare local appearance!

The Pam and Jeri Show will be back at Yoshi's Oakland on Wednesday, May 19th. Tickets are $18, click here to make your reservation!

We are honored to have the opportunity to perform at the fabulous Yoshi's again! The Oakland Yoshi's is one of the best listening rooms in the entire Bay Area - it has a pristine sound system and (more importantly?) fabulous food, and not a bad seat in the house. Yoshi's is famous for presenting top tier music consistently and we are thrilled to be a part of their lineup.

I'll look forward to an evening of our very best music and performance, lots of laughs, yummy food, comfort and good friends! Hope you will be there too. Advance tickets here.

photo by Tom Erikson, SF

Video - Yoshi's Rocks!

Check out these video clips from our last Yoshi's performance...Enjoy!

Trouble

Chain of Fools

House of the Living

photo© Merici Photography 2010

video © Graham Howes and Deal Matters

Truth Be Told

(photo by Merici Photography)
I love my job. I find myself working on amazing projects with extraordinary people, and I feel like the luckiest gal in the world. One recent project is the writing, producing and recording of a song called Truth Be Told, which was to be included in the soundtrack of the upcoming documentary film Atomic Mom. MT Silvia wrote the lyrics to the song and asked Pam and me to write the music. MT made a wonderful music video of the song, which is a sort of trailer for the movie. Watch and listen to Truth Be Told on You Tube.

The recording features some wonderful musicians. Our manager Suzanne Koga connected us to June Kuramoto of the Grammy nominated band Hiroshima, who she also manages. June's Koto playing brings the juxtaposition of Japanese and American cultures into this cut, which is exactly the feeling we wanted. We're so lucky to have worked with Paul Olguin on bass, Julie Wolf on Hammond C-3, Michaelle Goerlitz on drums, and Klaudia Promessi on native flutes. Klaudia did the soundtrack for the full length documentary as well. Pam's vocal really brings it home for me. The recording was done at Skywalker Sound, engineered and mixed by Leslie Ann Jones with Dann Thompson. The song was co-produced by Leslie Ann Jones and me (lucky me).

About the film: Atomic Mom reveals the intimate story about one of the few female scientists working on the testing of the atom bomb in the early 1950's. After decades of silence - and a crisis of conscious prompted by the probing of her filmmaker daughter, she shares her story and is offered an olive branch by a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. Read more, and watch the trailer for the film here: AtomicMom.org

Gibson Guitars and Working In The Studio

Pam and I are hard at work on a new album with our band, Blame Sally. This is no exception to the long studio process, but it's great to focus creative energy on a specific project. I'm working with tons of new gear, not the least of which is a beautiful Gibson Reverse V guitar which was given to me by Gibson Guitars at the Grammy gifting suite. Thank you Gibson, and yes, I am the luckiest gal I know! And huge thanks to our manager Suzanne Koga, who told Gibson about me and pointed out that a guitar given to me would get some good use. That is the case as you'll hear first hand when the album comes out later this year.

And we're super excited about the record. Check out Blame Sally for local gigs, video and all kinds of fun stuff. Soon we'll have some previews for you, everything from rockin' tunes to gorgeous atmospheric ballads. We think we're including a song by our friend Jane Selkye of Me Jane. And look for a re-release of The Pam and Jeri Show's old album "Blue Water Triplets". It will be available at our show at Yoshi's Oakland on May 19th!!

The Pam and Jeri Show performance photos by Merici Photography

New endorsement deal with Seymour Duncan!

The Grammy weekend was fantastic, but even before it started great things were happening for me. A few months ago, Evan Skopp of Seymour Duncan (Artist Relations) came to see my band Blame Sally in Santa Barbara. He must have liked the band because he offered me a full endorsement deal!! (Hellooooo!) I've been a fan of Seymour Duncan's cutting edge stompboxes and pickups since I stated concentrating on electric guitar in the early 80's. My friend Kevin Beller was the head of R & D at Seymour Duncan back then. He wound some custom pickups for me that sounded amazing with my vintage '77 Mesa amp and I've been sold ever since. So on that Friday I went for a demo and to meet the crew and walked out with a whole new outlook on guitar sounds. Suddenly I see the light - there's a brave new world to explore and a lot of new things to try!

Evan Skopp and Frank Falbo took me to the music room which was equipped with a dreamy array of guitars and amps, AND all of the cool gear Seymour Duncan produces. I started with my Nash Tele and a vintage Fender amp to test some of the tube distortion (preamp) pedals. For you nerdy gear-heads like me: they have real Phillips-Sylvania tubes and electronics which actually work the tubes, unlike most so called "tube" pedals. It's really amazing when you hear the difference. I chose the Twin Tube Classic over the newer Twin Tube Blue which totally surprised me. I liked the Twin Tube Mayhem a lot, but I don't have much application for that "death and doom" sound...

I would go on about the technical stuff I learned but I realize hardly anyone gives a &^%# about that (so here goes)... I got a chance to use the Shape Shifter pedal for the first time while tracking the new Blame Sally album this week. It's the most versatile tremolo I've ever used - it can be outrageously experimental sounding but I needed a glowy vintage sound which was effortless to dial in. I just LOVE a gorgeous guitar sound!

photo by Merici Photography

Stay tuned for more adventures from the world of Pam and Jeri

(ok, Jeri's world lately but we'll fix that). Pam and I are working on an idea for our upcoming show at Yoshi's, May 19th. Wanna mark your calendar for that, yes? I'll do a live demo of all of the above and it will make total sense to your senses.

2010 Grammys!

I was lucky and blessed to have been a part of Roberta Flack's entourage at the Grammys this year. What a thrill! My mom says it's probably the most exciting thing I'll ever do in my life...hmmm. Well, it was exciting. Our manager, Suzanne Koga who's been with Roberta Flack for 25 years now took me and dialed me in for the total VIP experience, which was unbelievable!

I'm a huge Roberta Flack fan, always have been. It was so amazing to see her get up and sing with Maxwell. She's an icon, a legend, and a wonderful, deep, generous person with an easy laugh and charming wit. She actually sang to me in the car after the show - a song she wrote with Maya Angelou called "And So It Goes". I think THAT may have been one of the most exciting moments of my life. You must look that up on iTunes and take a listen, it's so beautiful. Here's a cool interview with MTV that she did on Grammy day.

The TV cameras caught me sitting behind Delta Blues legend Honeyboy Edwards while he is being honored for Lifetime Achievment. And I got a hug from Taylor Swift backstage. What a sweetheart she is, hard working, elegant and talented.

After the show Suzanne took me to the Warner party with Roberta Flack and her friends. Roberta is working on a new album for them right now, but more about that later. After the Warner party we went off to Maxwell's party at the Mondrian Skybar.

WOW! Super fun. Super late --

I'm still tired but oh, such a lucky gal!