Ardella's Crown

Gene Smith’s Musician’s Bio

Gene Smith has been playing music mainly in the Sacramento area throughout his life. He began playing violin at the age of ten and progressed to guitar, bass and drums at 16. A self-taught ear player, Gene has studied music theory in college and through private instruction. His musical influences include Yes, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Leo Kottke, Klaus Shultze, Shakti and Jaco Pastorious.

During the 80’s Gene began playing open mic nights and gigs in small clubs and in the early 90’s Gene became the singer/guitarist for the well-known local Sacramento band Kai Kln. During the twenty years he’s spent with Kai Kln, Gene has earned two Sammie Awards for best vocals and best guitar. Other projects have included bands such as the Ricky and Del Connection and FTRA. He has played venues such as The Filmore, The Crest, Cattle Club, The I Beam, The Omni, and numerous other clubs in California and across the nation. Gene has supported other acts such as: The Mother Hips, Steve Miller Band, Nirvana, and Primus just to name a few as well as headlining his own gigs. He has had several successful recordings and has been a guest musician on a few.

As a talented and prolific songwriter and musician, Gene Smith has taken his experience and joined forces with Ardella's Crown to add a new dimension to his playing as well as utilizing his talents with different genres of music and instruments such as the bouzouki and mandolin to create Ardella's Crown's unique style.

Heather Amerman’s Musician’s Bio

Heather began taking college courses in voice and piano which lead to an increased interest and study of music and the vocal arts. Experienced in vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar, she has contributed to a local artist’s album and played with various local music teams.

Working with experienced vocalists and professional musicians has helped her discover her newfound songwriting skills. Artists such as Natalie Merchant, Leigh Nash, and Dolores O’Riordan have been of great musical inspiration to her. For Heather, songwriting has become a creative outlet in which she is able to infuse her soft spoken sound with alluring poetry that has been described as “melodic yet lively”.

Heather’s unique melodic vocal styling and poetic lyrical writing has become the defining and intricate character of Greenhouse’s musical soul.

Nick Embly’s Musician’s Bio

Originally a self-taught guitarist, Nick Embly began playing guitar at the age of 17 in 1980. In 1993 the bass player for the band he was playing in, abruptly left and Nick volunteered to temporarily take his place. This turned into a permanent reassignment.

As he studied his new instrument, Nick quickly discovered that bassists fill an integral musical niche that harmonized with his love of music. Having participated as a bass player for the last 18 years, Nick has come to embrace the instrument even more so than his first love the guitar. Formerly a member of an internationally recognized gospel group, he has been exposed to a myriad of song genres equipping him with the skill to create bass lines appropriate for whatever a song may demand.

Adopting and melding the musical styling of his favorite bass players, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, John Taylor, DuG Pinnick, and Doug Wimbish, he has created a unique, melodic bass sound executed over a funk-jazz tone that transcends typical musical definitions. This unique style has become the foundation for Ardella's Crown's musical index.

Bobby Hine’s Musician’s Bio

Bobby Hine’s first studied Percussion while living in Okinawa Japan in 1976. Bobby joined the Stage Band alongside Anne Ku (piano) while attending Kubasaki High School in Okinawa in 1979.

Bobby’s father packed up the family and moved back to California in1980 where he attended Highlands High School where he enrolled into marching band, symphonic band, wind ensemble, jazz band, pep band, choir ensemble and band lab. His favorite activities were playing in the HHS Drumline as Captain under the direction of Russ Ikemoto (Sacramento Freelancers) and jamming after school with Keyboardist Victor Porter (Club Nauveau, New Choice) to R & B favorites in a format later re-defined as "Smoothe Jazz". Victor played alongside Bobby in the school Jazz Band and he also introduced Bobby to Gospel Music.

Bobby served as the drummer at Madison Ave Baptist Church for eight years before moving onto New Testament Baptist Church under the direction of Reggie Graham and the current Minister of Music Kareem Mitchell. He has performed across the country with the many choirs, keyboardist, and musicians as a drummer for New Testament for the past ten years. He has also toured with John F. Rodgers across Australia and the U.S. and has drummed for the past 25 years with him.

Bobby’s masterful and versatile style has solidified the rhythmic foundation of Ardella's Crown's dynamic music and genre breaking style and brought a sense of completion to the g