Music: Saying Goodbye to Janis
By Voxxy
I recently closed out my ten-year performance as Janis Joplin in the tribute band Janis Lives. The experience was nothing short of phenomenal, and my hope is that I helped create a healing experience for the fans who loved her so much and lost her so soon. I believe we at least created a space for love and celebration, because we felt it at every single show!
One question I was asked again and again was: “How do you do it? How do you sing like that?” I always joked that it was the whiskey. But the truth is that I never really thought about “how” to do it—I just decided to do it. I wasn’t sure I could sing those notes when I started the project, and some of them are still a struggle for me. But I just decided to really lean into it. I think that NOT being a professionally trained vocalist (like Janis was) really helped. I didn’t have any rules to follow. All I had was mind over matter, the power of belief! And every night before we performed, I would meditate and essentially pray to Janis and ask for her blessing and her presence to be felt.
I personally never really felt like Janis was a truly great singer. I think she was a great performer and an EMOTIONAL singer, a rebellious singer. She knew where the note was, and she didn’t care how she got to it. She showcased the struggle. And that is what the audiences felt. That’s what made her so moving. And that is what I tried to embody. The funny thing is, that after doing it for ten years, my voice got almost too good in some parts where there needs to be that struggle. As my voice got stronger, I couldn’t always get the screech or the rasp to sound as rough.
Kinda makes sense, since I’ve realized that I sang Janis longer than Janis sang Janis! I often wonder if that would have been the case for Janis, had her music career ever developed over the course of a longer lifetime.
It was really hard to come to the decision to end the show. The band is my home away from home, and we always have such a great time together. The fans are amazing! So appreciative and so loving. The venues were epic, and we were almost always treated like royalty. Why would anyone walk away from that?
I have just never been able to do the same thing for long. I get restless and bored and need new challenges. Society labels it ADHD. But to me, it’s just growth. I’m an artist of many dimensions, no one-trick pony! And let’s face it: I wouldn’t paint the same painting over and over for ten years. It’s time for new art to be made. New skills to master. New love and healing to create, for myself and for others.
I don’t yet know what all my new endeavors will be, but I am looking forward to painting more and writing new songs for my original band Polly Slanderous as well as my solo project as Voxxy. And I am also producing three miniseries web shows for the Weekly Volcano, including one that I am quite proud of, called The Record Prophet, which I host. I’m including a QR code below, if you’d care to follow any of my other work.
In closing, I feel I achieved with Janis Lives what any artist hopes for with their art, and that is to affect people on an emotional level. I hope I inspired people to be their most authentic self, which ultimately is love. And I hope we can take that love out into the real world, in our everyday experiences—even the undesirable ones—and share that Love with those around us.
Thank you, Tacoma, for making our final show at Jazzbones so very perfect! And thank you to everyone who ever came to a show, to every venue that ever hosted us, and for every single hug and tear that we all shared together. Janis Lives on forever in all of our hearts!
