Aileen Vance BIOGRAPHY

In an age where a McDonald's consciousness pervades the commercial music industry, inundating the public with McSong after McSong, the quiet persevering ability of an award-winning songwriter like Aileen Vance is something to savor.

Aileen's stunning voice and rich-toned hand-built guitar have taken her halfway around the world from her hometown of Santa Cruz, California, bringing her unique musical vision to audiences of all ages and persuasions across the U.S., Canada, Britain and even Mexico.  Her songs have been performed by such well-known artists as Priscilla Herdman, Pete Seeger, Pat Humphries, Eileen McGann, Nancy Tucker, Jackson Gillman and Susie Burke.

"I'm a great believer in songs about ordinary people," she says, "because I find so much inspiration in how people survive and flourish against all the odds. Maybe that's why I love performing so much in front of so many different kinds of people: I simply find people amazing."

Compassion for other beings on the earth is another of Aileen's central themes. Songs about the preservation of the wolf, wild birds, whales, forests, and more are woven through her concerts and recordings. "I believe that one of the greatest responsibilities of the artist is to speak for those who might not be able to speak for themselves. It is a magical ability that we have as human beings: to imagine what it might be like to walk in someone else's shoes."

As for Aileen's musical influences, they are many and diverse. She grew up listening to the finest singers of traditional songs from Ireland, England, and Scotland, and that formed the backbone of her education as a singer. "But you would have been just as likely to find me listening to the fine singers of other traditions," she adds. "My grandmother introduced me early on to the power of such great singers as Paul Robeson and Mahalia Jackson." Joni Mitchell, Jean Redpath, Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens, and many others, were just as important. "They all have a basic soulful quality that speaks truthfully about life, and about the human spirit," she comments.

But don't let all this heady discussion mislead you. An Aileen Vance concert always includes a lot of fun, singing along and humor. At Aileen's concerts, you are just as likely to laugh out loud as to cry, as she takes you on a journey through the full range of human experience---from the run-down shack of Salinas Valley migrant farmworkers to the family dinner table of New Age alter-ego Rainbow Mountain Dishwater; from the moonlit silence of a bird sanctuary to the clamor of a second grade classroom. Aileen Vance is a warm and powerful performer, a talented comedienne, and one of America's finest songwriters. Her spirit and principles are apparent in everything she does.

When Aileen Vance comes to your town, go listen. When you leave, you'll be singing.
(c Bernard Gilbert/An Honest Production )

 

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