Joey Curtin

Joey Curtin's music has been described as healing. That's not surprising, considering her history.

In 2003-2004, she played a weekly gig at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Her recordings have been used in emergency rooms, intensive care units, and cancer therapy centers in Houston and in San Francisco.

Prior to that, the Redding pianist and her singer-songwriter husband, Patrick, performed worship music at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in San Francisco for eight years, as well as at various venues throughout the city.

Curtin will perform a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at Old City Hall in Redding. She'll play solo piano tunes and also collaborate with her husband, a guitarist; and multi-instrumentalist Marc Cooper and violinist Jasmine Kinney. Tickets are $10.

Musical selections will include work from her new CD "God With Us: A Solo Piano Christmas";

Healing has been a common theme for the Curtins. They've been invited to speak and perform multiple times at peace and reconciliation meetings between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

In one meeting in 1999 in Belfast, the Curtins witnessed a meeting where parents of murdered children and those who had committed murders forgave each other.

"That was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life," Joey Curtin said of the meeting.

"It's very humbling," she added."You think, what could I possibly do as an American? But people end up telling you stories because you're a stranger, old stories that had wounded them greatly. We would play music and that's the amazing thing about music, the healing quality."

Her experiences in Ireland formed the foundation of her 2000 album "River of Life" which she describes as an instrumental prayer for the country.

Born in the small South Dakota town of Marion, Curtin moved to the north shore of Lake Tahoe in 1982. She met Patrick as the two were part of a Christian new wave rock band. At the same time, she began finding work performing as a solo pianist in ski lodges, restaurants and art galleries.

Eventually she grew weary of performing the standard "torchlight" written by others. A year after arriving in California, she began composing her own music and using it in her set lists. She recorded her first demo in 1986.

On Sunday, Curtin invites listeners to lose themselves in a style of music she describes as falling somewhere in between jazz, new age and American roots.

"I just want to cause somebody to enjoy their day,"she said. "Just sit back and forget about shopping for a while and close your eyes."

d.a.t.e. editor Jim Dyar can be reached at 225-8227 or jdyar@redding.com. - Redding Searchlight