Candace Devine

Candace Devine: Believe
Singer-songstress Candace Devine has a refreshingly unique singing voice and musical style. I first heard her music via Women Folk, one of my favourite music blogs. Candace's vocals range from deep and bluesy to soaring high notes, and her music alternates between classic soul and pop-infused blues. On her album, Believe, she successfully takes on both Aretha and Otis while also showing off her own original tunes.

The album opens with the sadly short "Won't You Try". Sad because just as Candace begins to unleash that amazing voice, the song ends. "Free" has a faster pace, a stronger, catchy, pop-soul beat, a bit of brass (sax, trumpet, and trombone), and back up singers that would've given The Raylettes a run for their money.

"Don't Save Your Love" is another foot tappin' tune that brings both the brass and the back up choir back and allows Candace's voice to go full force. "Kissed You Again" slows it down for a guitar strummed semi-ballad.

"You'll Never Break My Heart Again" has a bluesy diva sound worthy of Aretha. This is the kind of classic soul that other singers like Joss Stone try and fail to duplicate. The kind of music that I wish Joan Osborne were making. The title track "Believe" is a softer, slightly faster pop and jazz tune.

The brass is back on the funky Aretha cover, "Baby I Love You". There aren't many modern singers that could take on the Queen, but Candace's attempt here is victorious. Her take is relaxed, fun, and soulful. She doesn't try too hard, because she doesn't need to.

Candace's vocals hit their peak at the end of the torch ballad "Tell Me How To Stop". And again when she successfully tackles another legend with her bluesy, brassy cover of Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long".

"For Tonight" closes the album in a sweeter mood. The song showcases the softer, smoother side of Candace's voic - Muruch - Blogspot

Top 12 My GRAMMY Moment Finalists

January 9, 2007

Fans to help determine who will perform with Justin Timberlake on the GRAMMY Awards

GRAMMY.com

After a thorough evaluation process, The Recording Academy today announced the Top 12 finalists in the "My GRAMMY Moment" campaign, which is a historic opportunity for unsigned artists to vie for a special performance slot on the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards with multi-GRAMMY nominee Justin Timberlake. The public can log on to Yahoo! Music, the official online partner of the GRAMMY Awards, to view the video submissions, bios and photos of the 12 hopefuls, and vote for their Top 5 favorites. The results of this round will be announced on Jan. 17.

"We received an overwhelming number of video submissions for 'My GRAMMY Moment' and the Top 12 finalists selected reflect a diverse group of talented individuals from across the country," said Recording Academy President Neil Portnow. "The Recording Academy has always supported new and developing artists and now, with the accessibility and popularity of the Internet, we are able to include music fans to make the important decision of bringing the field to five hopeful candidates, then again down to three talented finalists and, eventually, one amazing artist."

Over the next several weeks, fans will continue to narrow the field from five to three finalists by voting online at Yahoo! Music. The top three finalists will be announced during Super Bowl weekend and each will rehearse with Timberlake during GRAMMY Week in Los Angeles. The public will choose their favorite performer via online and text message votes during the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards, held on Feb. 11 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and broadcast live on the CBS Television Network at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). The winner will be announced live on the show before his/her "GRAMMY Moment" with Timberlake. Please click here for more information about the rules.

The 12 finalists are: Candace Devine, Burbank, Calif.; Amanda Dunn, Charlotte, N.C.; Jillian Gaudious, Long Branch, N.J.; Candice Jackson, Austin, Texas; Jessica James, Warner Robins, Ga.; Africa Miranda, Montgomery, Ala.; David Moore, Orlando, Fla.; Brenda Radney, Staten Island, N.Y.; Philip Ray, Oakland, Calif.; Jayne Rio, Vallejo, Calif.; Robyn Troup, Houston, Texas; and Mandy Ventrice, Pittsburg, Calif.

Link to press release: http://www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/News/Default.aspx?newsID=2323&newsCategoryID=1
- Grammy.com

Simply devine’ is one way to describe the soulful music of Los Angeles-based singer, Candace Devine, who has just recently released her debut album, Believe. And while the play on words may seem banal, they’re well-deserved.

Fortunate enough to have discovered her talent and passion for singing early, Devine quickly found the direction needed to advance. Still in her twenties, Devine’s past credits have included writing songs for two motion pictures and working alongside both Christina Aguilera and Dave Thomas of the singing group Take 6.

But despite her past success, Devine seems to have come out of nowhere with a debut album that boasts some incredibly fresh rock-infused blues and soul. From the super-infectious ‘Don’t Save Your Love’ to her remarkable interpretation of Otis Redding’s classic ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,’ Devine soars amongst many of her contemporaries.

Womenfolk is proud to introduce the nineteenth in its This Woman’s Work series with the inclusion of Candace Devine.

-- Robbie McCown, WomenFolk.net - Robbie McCown - WomenFolk.net

Candace Devine
Whisky a Go Go
West Hollywood

Web: www.candacedevine.com

The Players: Candace Devine, vocals; Ron Arnold, guitar; Rich Burns, bass; Brad Swanson, drums; Nick Smith, keyboards; April Brown, backup vocals; Bethany Hogan, backup vocals.

Material: Candace Devine’s music is sweet R&B with a slice of soul, sometimes jazzy, sometimes danceable, but always with a good groove that is reminiscent of Taylor Dayne. “Kissed You Again” is a danceable and definitely radio-ready tune. Even Devine’s choice of cover songs reflects her style, and she makes each one her own.

Musicianship: Devine has as-embled a band of true professionals, led by her producer, Arnold, on guitar. The group stays low-key so that Devine’s sultry vocals come shining through. Smith’s keys add the right amount of jazz undertones to the music, while Burns’ bass and Swanson’s drums make it all possible with a smooth foundation. Brown and Hogan complete the package with just the right amount of background vocals to complement Devine’s sweet sound

Performance: Before the first song was over, Devine had the entire audience in the palm of her hand. The crowd sang along, shouting encouragement and support. This is a natural performer, who was truly born for the stage. She kept the audience involved by changing pace, from slow to fast, without losing any continuity. De-vine showed many facets of her music, and covered each style with the same expertise. To put it mildly, this girl had a serious groove going. The crowd didn’t want her to leave, and Devine responded with an encore that left her fans wanting more.

Summary: Candace Devine is a diva in the making. She has the talent, the songs and the pipes to pull it off. Her live show, combined with her MTV exposure, gives her act a leg up in the heavy modern rock field.
––Bob Leggett
- Music Connection Magazine

Candace Devine the New "it" Artist on the Blue-Eyed Soul Music Scene

Growing up in Burbank, California with Hollywood literally in her back yard, you would think that for Candace Devine the opportunity to play a venue like the Roxy Theatre would just be par for

Candace Devine
Date of Interview: 03/18/2009
the course. Actually Ms. Devine is without pretension and truly polite, humble and as genuine as they come. Her angelic face lights up just talking about the opportunity to play the historic venue.

I got the chance to sit and chat with the Soulful songstress after being in ah of her vocal prowess and dynamic stage presennce during a powerhouse performance as she opened up for singer/songwriter and American Idol season five winner Taylor Hicks.

AC: Since your first release "Believe" in 2006, what life experiences have transpired that you will take into the development and writing process for your next album?

Candace Devine: Death really, I lost my grandmother and that was a fundamental event in my life. That event is shaping a lot of the things I write these days both positive and negative. Just taking the perspective of not taking the time for granted with other people in your life, and enjoying the moments you have. Really just living the life you have to the fullest and making it worth while.

AC: On "Believe" did you write with other writers?

Candace Devine: Yes, I did, the last album I wrote with Ron Arnold who is just brilliant. On the new album I have pretty much written all myself so far.

AC: What is you writing process?

Candace Devine: It's pretty funny. I do get a lot of melodies in the shower, which for some, may seem odd. Also, before my grandmother past away, she gave me my great grandmothers piano, being able to have that access in my hands at home really opened up an entire doorway to something I did not have before. So I can just take melodies from the shower straight to the piano.

AC: Are there any other instruments that you play?

Candace Devine: Well, I play guitar very poorly, I'm a chord player and play just enough to get me by and hum a little. Oh yea, and the spoons.

AC: The Spoons! Oh I have to hear that...(Laughing)

Candace Devine: Well save that one for next time.

AC: Being in the top 12 of My Grammy moments, did you get to attend the Grammys?

Candace Devine: I did not. That would have been great, but sorry to say I had to watch it at home like everyone else. You had to bring that up...just kidding.

AC: Don't worry. You are well on your way and you will remember this moment and maybe talk about during your acceptance speech.

Candace Devine: Yea, I hope I get the chance.

AC: Speaking of the Grammys, you got to work with Grammy Winner Christina Aguilera. In what capacity did you get to work with her and how was the experience?

Candace Devine: I sang back up for her, before a tour that ultimately got cancelled because she strained her vocal chords. I worked with her for a couple of months and doubled her vocals in rehearsals. She's amazing. She didn't come in that often, she was doing a lot of things over in Germany. What I got hired for was to double her vocals to give her some padding, because we were about to tour a lot of cities and like any artist with a compact tour schedule your voice gets tired and I was hired to give her the padding she needed.

AC: As you gain more exposure, do you plan to go overseas and expand your fan base to foreign markets?

Candace Devine: Yes, I would love that...I really think that the UK and other similar markets would take to my style of music, because many audiences there are into Blue-Eyed Soul, Funk, and just Groovy Tunes.

AC: Is there a theme or common thread to your next project?

Candace Devine: There is. So often I write about love in general, but this time I think instead of broken hearted, hang me by my neck love; I think this time the writing will be geared more towards perseverance and love of self and enlightenment love, you know, just figuring out about life a bit more.

AC: Being in and around the L.A. music scene and the entertainment industry for a while, is there anything that you have found to be totally overrated?

Candace Devine: Overrated? Not at all. Everything is pretty cool. I mean truly if your hired as a session singer on a TV show, that's awesome. I got to sing with Steven Van Zandt on an HBO project and that was phenomenal. If you get to be a back up singer for someone like Christina or a Destinys Child or anyone, it's great. If you get to write a song for a feature film, that's an honor, or getting to play historic venues like the Roxy with Taylor Hicks or anybody, it's amazing. All of that is just an opportunity to get out there and do what you love, so none of it for me is overrated. Every artist just wants to get to the point of being able to do it all the time and the more the merrier.

AC: Before tonight had you heard any of Taylor early work?

Candace Devine: I got to come in on his sound check and he is amazing. He is going to kill it out there.

AC: Had you heard any of his early stuff before Idol?

Candace Devine: No I was not privileged to hear his independent albums. Well that is the thing with any artist getting the exposure when you're still considered a "nobody" if you will. That is the hardest thing ever. Even though people say it's an Independent nation now for musicians. Independents take over everything. The truth of the matter is promotion is still hard to come by. You can go out knocking door to door and say "Everybody, I'm here, I'm here" but you can only get through two blocks in a week you know. So getting a whole nation or a whole world to hear your stuff to hear your stuff is very hard. He was out in the South and didn't reach me until American Idol. It's a good thing that there are those engines to promote people. The man is amazing. I did not get to hear him early on but I am sure glad I get to now.

AC: Will there be any collaborations on the next album writers, producers, or artists?

Candace Devine: It is all still in the works, I know that I am hoping to be writing with Josh Kelley in the next few days, I hope to get some stuff out of that...I have a friend, Dave Yaden, who is also an Independent artist. I hope to write with him a little bit. We've been talking about it. The beautiful thing about getting to play venues like this is that you get exposed to so many acts that you do get to have in front of you day in and day out. You get to see what they come up with and what they present on stage and sometimes you think "hey that can vibe with my stuff" or they write things that I tune into. Just being out and playing a lot this past year, I have run into so many amazing artists and I keep in touch with many of them. So I would not be surprised if, on the next album, there are co-writings with five or six different artists.

AC: Is there any artist that you would dream to work with if you were given that opportunity?

Candace Devine: Stevie Wonder is at the top of that list. I would also love to work with Alicia Keys. I think she is a genius. Jason Mraz is brilliant. I think he has one of the greatest voices of our time. The list goes on and on. Paul McCartney. I hear MJ's touring again Michael hit me up...(makes phone gesture) and I don't think that in a lifetime I could get through everyone I would love to collaborate with.

AC: If you were not an artist, what career path would you have taken?

Candace Devine: If I were not living the dream, I would be training horses. It is what I have always done. I still train horses. I use to coach the USC Equestrain Team.

AC: I went to USC! Go Trojans!

Candace Devine: As my team would say, RIDE on! I would have probably been a trainer and then went pro and possibly train endlessly and just be the best I could be as an athlete in the equestrian arena. The truth is, I have ridden my whole life and I am a fifth generation equestrian rider; but the songs keep coming out of me, so what am I gonna do? I've gotta sing them. So I guess I could be happy sittin on a ranch somewhere with a baby in tow suckling with my cowboy husband. No, just kidding I can not even fathom doing anything else but be living my dream.

AC: So how long have you guys been together as a band collectively?

Candace Devine: I have known April and Sandra (back up vocals) since college and the guys roughly around a year to a year and a half. It was all kind of word of mouth here and there. Then we all just locked in and we finally got the dream band. I love these guys and I hope they go with me everywhere.

Candace Devine has the vocal chops of Taylor Dane and Joss Stone rolled into one, and the dynamic stage presence of Christina Aguilera. Even with those comparisons Candace Devine has a pure throw-back original smooth Soul sound all her own and she is truly taking the L.A. music scene by storm and bringing traditional Soul Music back into the mainstream. - Associated Content

LA Vida L.A.: Jazz Night @ Teddy’s Will Make You Love It
By Tricia Romano April 29, 2009

I am not a lover of jazz. My father was a jazz musician, and for the duration of my younger years, he would play these noodly bits of instrumental music as a way to torment the teenager in his house who preferred bad hard rock and new wave. Good thing, then, that the house band at the weekly Thursday jazz night at Teddy’s knows how to capture the imaginations of the jazz-fearing masses: They take pop music hits and turn them into bluesy, jazzy riffs. A smart and sexy idea.
There we were, standing in Teddy’s cavelike interior bathed in blue light (what else?), watching a voluptuous, short blonde woman dressed in a white sparkly dress tear through “Addicted to Love.” She was Candace Devine, and she has to be good—she’s a backup singer for Christina Aguilera. In order to prop up that big vox, yours better be meaty, too.
And it was. Big, bold, beautiful, ballsy.
She was backed by a crack band. They switch in and out, but the core members are Tommy King (piano), Aaron West, (sax), Ryan Fevis and Ryan Cross on bass, Paul Allen, Iaghi Hampton, and Donald Barrett on drums, Joel Whittley and Zane Carney on guitar, and Michael Bulger on trumpet and “everything else,” says band manager Travis Case.
They wore paperboy hats, vests, and skinny ties, and they seemed to keep a wad of tobacco tucked in the side of their cheeks; we were transported to another era, one far away from even the regular Friday and Saturday nights at Teddy’s. The crowd was a cool multiculti mix—you saw African American couples in their 30s and 40s, younger Lindsay Lohan types in tiny dresses swaying to the music, and a few fashionable lesbians.
In a more mainstream venue in Hollywood, this is unusual; but then, this night isn’t very typical of most of what you find on the Strip. Just down the street at the same time, the edgy downtown glitz of Diamond Dogs was going off in full force. And around the corner on Sunset, you could go into the Roxy or the Whisky and pretend it’s 1988.

It might surprise you, as it did me, to learn that jazz night is the brainchild of Danny Masterson, who these days seems better known in the blogosphere for being a Scientologist and DJ (Momjeans) than as an actor from a famous TV show. Masterson wants the night to feel old school, and he enforces a dress code: suits for the guys, dresses for the ladies. It mostly works ... ties are provided at the door if you don’t have one. But we were amused to learn that a tie can’t buy you elegance. One frat-boy type was given a tie and entree, and he quickly proceeded to do a Jaeger bomb at the bar. Classy.
The night was originally at Guy’s on Sunday nights, but when Guy’s closed, Masterson moved it to the Sunset Room space. That didn’t gel, but the third time turned out to be the charm, moving to Teddy’s on Valentine’s Day.
The band keeps things moving too—with new players rotating in and out of the line-up—as well as new singers, some of whom are quite famous, including John Mayer and Christina Aguilera. But the celeb quotient is perhaps the least interesting part of the night; better still are the hard-working musicians who serve as the core.
That Thursday, after Devine’s opener, regular performer Jacob Luttrell took the keys and the mic. He was the yang to Devine’s yin. He had a lilting falsetto, which my companion said reminded her of Robin Thicke or Justin Timberlake. He cruised through a shimmery rendition of Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love.”
After him, Dave Yaden took over and imparted his blue-eyed soul into the jams. While the band was perfectly capable twirling the familiar songs into their own groove, in between the choruses, when they were just jamming, you see that they were the real deal, too. My father would have approved.
Jazz Night happens every Thursday at Teddy’s.
Email tips to tromano@bbook.com.
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Tags: Los Angeles, Nightlife, Teddy's, Whisky A Go Go, Danny Masterson, Tricia Romano, La Vida L.A., Roxy, Jacob Luttrell, Candace Devine

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