EARLVILLE — Earlville Opera House at 18 E. Main St. in Earlville will present Carolyn Wonderland live on its main stage at 7 p.m. Friday, April 21.
According to a media release, a musical force equipped with the soulful vocals of Janis and the guitar slinging skills of Stevie Ray, Wonderland reaches into the depths of Texas blues tradition with the wit of a poet. She hits the stage with a so-called unmatched presence and has been called a true legend in her time.
Wonderland grew up the child of a singer in a band and began playing her mother’s vintage Martin guitar when other girls were dressing dolls. She’d gone from being the teenage toast of her hometown Houston to sleeping in her van in Austin amid heaps of critical acclaim for fine recordings. Along with the guitar and the multitude of other instruments she learned to play – trumpet, accordion, piano, mandolin, lap steel – Wonderland’s ability to whistle remains most unusual. Whistling is described as a uniquely vocal art seldom invoked in modern music, yet it’s among the most spectacular talents the human voice possesses.
That vocal proficiency was well-established in the singer’s mid-teens, landing her gigs at Fitzgerald’s by age 15. She absorbed Houston influences like Little Screamin’ Kenny, Albert Collins, Lavelle White, Jerry Lightfoot, Joe “Guitar” Hughes, Little Joe Washington, and “borrowed” a car to sneak out and jam, ending up swapping songs with Townes Van Zandt at Houston’s Local’s on White Oak, got involved in the underground theater scene becoming the first “Photochick” in Jason Nodler’s “In the Under Thunderloo,” and soaked up touring bands like the Paladins, Los Lobos, and the Mad Hatter of Texas music, Doug Sahm.
Wonderland’s music played in television series such as “Time of Your Life” and NBC’s “Homicide.” Texas, The Lone Star State, was as credible a proving ground for blues in the 1980s and ‘90s as existed, especially in Austin with Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Angela Strehli, Omar & the Howlers, and Lou Ann Barton all in their prime. By the following decade, Austin’s blues luster thinned, but Houston, always a bastion of soul and R&B, boasted the Imperial Monkeys with the effervescent Carolyn Wonderland as ruler of the jungle.
In addition to her angelic voice which is said to be able to turn into a class 5 hurricane all with the drop of a hat, Wonderland has won numerous awards, most recently being honored at Austin Music Awards with Best Blues Band and Best Guitarist.
Tickets are $40 for general admission, $36 for members and $20 for college students. Tickets for youths 17 and younger are always $10. Premiums apply to the first four rows.
Visit https://tinyurl.com/hwxm4raw for tickets and www.earlvilleoperahouse.com for more information.