shelly rudolph

"Every so often an artist comes along that literally has it all...great songwriting, a beautiful seductive voice and a passion for music that jumps out of whatever machine or mechanism you may be listening to the music on. Shelly Rudolph is that special artist and Water in My Hand is that special CD. Shelly possesses that natural, earthy tone that can't be taught in a music class. Her voice caresses your ears-and her sassy attitude keeps you coming back for more. If you are one that loves music and you want to fall in love again-look no further than Water In My Hand-I promise you won't be disappointed".

Calvin Walker
89.1, KMHD Radio
Jazz, Blues & NPR News

- KMHD radio, Portland, OR

"... '70s-influenced pop and hook-laden R&B and soul, Rudolph has a charming, pulchritudinous ease on stage that's both fresh and genuine. With a honey-rich alto and a wide compass, she's able to easily globetrot from chugging blue-eyed gospel to breathy Julie Londonisms to insinuating, luxuriously behind-the-beat slow dances (think Rufus-era Chaka Khan). No period extravagance or croon-posturing here, just good old-fashioned singing." TIM DUROCHE - Willamette Week

"Parts of Water in My Hand have a jazzy feel, but the album's primary template is a sort of supper-club take on R&B, and a wealth of other influences course through it. The connective thread is Rudolph's passionate, soulful delivery....." MARTY HUGHLEY - The Oregonian

HOME, AND WHERE THE HEART IS
Friday, January 13, 2006
The day is damp, and, to borrow a description from one of Shelly Rudolph's songs, "Chet Baker gray." Even so, Rudolph sits in a Northwest Portland cafe and talks about how good it feels to be back living in Oregon.

"It's so much cozier here," the Eugene native says. "I got tired of L.A. I felt very ungrounded there, and eventually even kind of silly."

The vagaries of the music business no doubt account for such feelings. But for Rudolph there's been a tug of war between career opportunities and home comforts -- which helps explain why she's left and come back.

Since she started out as a singer, Rudolph has moved from Eugene to New York, Portland, Los Angeles, Portland, Santa Barbara and again, about a year ago, Portland. "With a few months in the Caribbean as well," she adds. "Which I liked the best. Oh, and a little time over in Japan and Korea."

All that mileage, however, isn't why she landed on the phrase "world soul" to try to describe the style of her new album, "Water in My Hand." When it comes to genre, where she lives is a more complicated matter.

For one thing, Rudolph might easily be taken for a jazz singer, especially if you'd caught her in the few public performances she's made as she re-establishes a presence in the Portland music scene.

"Sometimes I feel my voice fits that old soul and jazz stuff, Etta James kinds of things," she says. . . . But when I write, this is what comes out," she says, tapping a finger on a copy of the new album.

Parts of "Water in My Hand" have a jazzy feel, but the album's primary template is a sort of supper-club take on R&B, and a wealth of other influences course through it. The connective thread is Rudolph's passionate, soulful delivery.

Rudolph hopes to play official CD-release shows in March. For her Saturday show at the Blue Monk she'll mix songs from the album with her more standard jazz-club repertoire. "I'm so excited to do this original material," she says (Rudolph wrote or co-wrote every song save a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire"). "It's great to connect with people in that intimate way. But it's much scarier, too."

Rudolph's predilection for the intimate comes across in the unabashed romanticism of her lyrics but also in a yearning for a more universal connection. And this is where some of the nonmusical aspects of Rudolph's background -- from her University of Oregon studies in psychology and anthropology to a stint working in what she describes as "a metaphysical bookstore" -- come into play.

"That's a theme to my album, too," she says. "Most of them are love songs, but there's the psychological aspects and the cultural and mythic part and how those interact. And there's that place where we're all exactly the same. Being that vulnerable and open can get you to the place where you feel that we're all connected in that really internal place."

That place that's home to a world soul.


- The Oregonian