Chantelle Tibbs

SFBG You're fabulous. What's your deal?

CHANTELLE TIBBS Well, I play acoustic folk music with a bit of soul to it - my new CD is called Take Me Now. I have really big hair. I have a pretty sweet T-shirt company called Wear Me Naked [www.wearmenaked.com]. I make hand-painted, hand-stenciled, and screen-printed T-shirts. Our catalog is a comic book illustrated by Daniel Iley. I'm also a writer, which runs in my family. My father and my brother happen to be excellent writers. I'm currently editing the first edition of a novel I've written called The L.A.W.S., and I'm cowriting a book called Letters to a Lesbian and a Lutheran with the ever-so-talented Christine Whitmarsh. In my spare time I enjoy baking and collecting music. I make a mean organic cream puff.

SFBG What's your philosophy of style?

CT I believe a solid wardrobe is a good blend of $212 jeans and shirts someone left behind in the lost and found. You'll know you've found your style when you see it, and one should always be open to trying something new.

Chantelle's favorites
Books: Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman, and Foxfire, by Joyce Carol Oates
Record: Contra la Corriente, by Marc Anthony ("My mom's Puerto Rican. I can't help myself.")
Local artist: "Twiz - I wish I could buy everything he paints."
Local designer: Exist Design (www.existdesign.com) - "I've even modeled for the Web site."
Restaurant: Nizario's Pizza (www.nizariospizza.com)
Beauty products: Egyptian musk and Vaseline Intensive Care Cocoa Butter
Thing she can't live without: Skittles (and her brother Chris)
Check out more Chantelle at www.chantelletibbs.com. - The SF Bay Guardian

Intrepid intern Lotto Chancellor (we shit you not, that's his name) checked out the Chantelle Tibbs show at El Rio last Tuesday ....

EL RIO, Tuesday, September 4 — Sandwiched between Wee the Band, whose showertime blues covers were tolerable, and Dubious Ranger, whose drummer couldn’t quite seem to find the pocket, was Chantelle Tibbs, another SF transplant from, where else, the East Coast. But don’t worry. She’s from Jersey, not Mass.

This woman straight up has pipes, pipes with enough resonance to fill the El Rio’s carpeted space and draw genuine applause not just from her admirers but also from wayward shuffleboard players, semi-conscious tipplers, et al. After her hour-long set she sold off what demos she had, and took compliments with grace, which is an easy thing to do when you know that people are actually telling you the truth about your performance.

Soulful, rich, and well-divined, Tibbs’ voice supports her seriously playful approach to pitch-bending. She plies at the note from either side, sharpening the expected tone on the first pass, flattening it the second. Her vocal intentionality betrays both a keen ear and a studied technique, creating tension and intrigue. Her lyrics are solid, varied. She even sang a proper cancion en espagnol. Once she works out some complicated rhythms on her guitar, she might just be poised to turn heads.

I left feeling envious of this woman for three reasons, in main. First, I know that even if I were to devote long hours to training my voice as she has, my showertime blues covers would remain hackneyed and overwrought. Second, I came to find that Chantelle has written two volumes about man-raping Electro-Girlpunks set in the year 2026 and totaling, she says, nearly 600 pages. Third, she rocks (can I say rocks?) her own t-shirt line, Wear Me Naked, which you can check out at her site, ChanelleTibbs.com. You must understand that, in all this, she lives my dream.

Chantelle Tibbs proves that some SF transplants still come out here for all the right reasons: to sing songs to whoever will listen, write whatever they want, and wear themselves out while inspiring, and being inspired by, the City. If she keeps up the hard work you’ll be seeing, hearing, maybe even reading more of her.

(chris demento, mark b.) - NOISE SFBG Music Blog

San Francisco is lucky Chantelle Tibbs flutters here during this nostalgic verano in the foggy bay. Her third San Francisco appearance this year, at Bazaar Café she joined the Women Rock series. Wednesday’s performance was a chance to learn her classics like “Do You in the Booty” and “Cry”. And now you can hum along on September 4 when she graces the stage at El Rio. Chantelle sings and strums melodies. Folk, a bit of soul y ella se habla rock. A mod messenger on stage, she howls. Off stage she designs Wear Me Naked and redistributes. Backstage she is cinematic. Songs to download the myspace. These don't do her justice...she's meant to be experienced live, complete with witty banter. - Not For Tourists (notfortourists.com)

Down Deeva Chantelle Tibbs, stroking away at the guitar with some soulful insightful lyrics. My favorite singer songwriter!!

Check her out!

http://operator11.com/shows/1611/episodes/11629 - Operator 11 (operator11.com)