wordplay: Scott Mastro
image: Jim Narcy
Converging on Denver, Friday, February 22nd is a trio of performing songwriters, Angie Stevens, Jessica Sonner, and Matt Jones, each with style and attraction each their own. Billed together, they make a synergy of song-sensation.
The Oriental Theater at Tennyson and 44th offers the finest entertainment, and stars shining bright this night, ‘Stand Up Girl’ Angie Stevens, homegrown Denverite, Jessica Sonner, and ‘The Real’ Matt Jones will deliver music to touch your heart and soul like a defibrillator of lyric and emotion.
Matt Jones hails from Albuquerque, where he cut his teeth on Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. About his band, Boss Ordinance, he says, “Our style changed drastically over the years and we thought we’d rise to the top, opening for Rod Stewart in our last summer together, but it wasn't until I released my first solo CD that a full-time music career looked fruitful. By May of 2005 my CD sales and shows equaled paychecks from my 8-5. I launched music full-time and haven’t looked back.”
Jessica Sonner spent free time and summers under the influence of Christian and oldies stations, wandering the smooth, warm stone of Red Rocks, imagining herself singing there one day. Discovering Top 40 radio, she listened intently until finding KBCO artists like Jewel, Sarah McLaughlin, and Shawn Mullins. At Anderson University, she crunched down on songwriting and savored the taste.
“The first time I knew music and songwriting were goals, was when a dear friend asked, “If money wasn't a determining factor, what could you do for the rest of your life and be totally happy?" I never wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be a songwriter. I had all these songs nobody was hearing so I started playing them and one coffeehouse gig after another, fell into being an artist.”
2008 promises college gigs and traveling, showcasing NACA, a college talent organization, and hopefully bigger tours. “I just moved back to Denver, and I’d love to get to know musicians. There are cool things happening with the Denver music scene.”
Angie Stevens swings and sways like a fire engine tootin’ and hollerin’ down the avenue, and she’s been known to climb aboard her bass player’s standup bass too.
Her business manager, Suzanne Lainson of Boulder’s Koala Bear Records says, “Angie spent her childhood in Rapid City, South Dakota, then high school in Fargo, North Dakota and some college in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Heading West, she landed in Denver. Westword profiled her a year and a half ago. In the last few years, when she started playing again, she has made a name for herself in Denver and she's focusing on doing more nationally. We're working on a business plan right now and setting up goals for the next year. She was just at Sundance and that went very well, so she'll likely be returning to Park City, Utah on a regular basis, plus playing Sundance again next year.”
Songwriting great Dan Fogelberg’s recent passing leaves us with these words: I don't think anyone should forget the magic involved with writing a song. One day there's nothing, and the next day there's something there. And it may change the world for all you know.
Shakespeare said, “The play’s the thing.” These three troubadours together adjust art-form rhetoric to, “The song’s got it going on.”
Say it again, Angie Stevens, Jessica Sonner, and Matt Jones, Friday, February 22nd at the Oriental Theater.
February 22nd @ The Oriental (4335 W. 44th Ave.)
AngieStevens.com