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Whiskey Belles
Blonde On Blonde
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Chrissy
Dzioba
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Chrissy
Dzioba (Joe-buh) began piano training and performance at
the age of three, reading music before she could read
words. As a music major in college, Chrissy focused on
classical piano as well as saxophone, |
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but continued to
write songs on guitar and mandolin. She soon
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began
performing weekly as a solo artist around Wisconsin. She
writes |
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catchy
melodies containing lyrics that are direct, yet
introspective. |
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In 1999 Chrissy released a demo CD entitled
In
the Making, with the help of local |
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artist and songwriter,
Nick Venturella. One year later, with the energy of
producer/bassist Joe Puerta, engineer Kevin Arndt, mastering
engineer Trevor |
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Sadler, and accomplished
Milwaukee musicians such as Greg Koch, Mike Standal, Theo Merryweather, Brian Dale, Warren Wiegratz, John McWilliams, including a string quartet
lead by Jared Snyder, the fully produced album,
Far From
Dreaming was released. The CD features ten songs penned by
Chrissy Dzioba and one cover - a plaintive version of Leaving
on a Jet Plane, a tribute John Denver, since it was the
first song she sang live with an acoustic guitar for an audience
of well over a thousand. This unbelievably diverse record
contains a mixture of folk, pop, jazz, and blues, with
instruments such as wailing guitars, strings, piano, and
accordion. |
"Far
From Dreaming"
had national distribution through Orfin Records and
could be found throughout the Midwest at Best Buy, and
locally at: Exclusive Company, Barnes and Noble, Atomic
Records, CD Baby, Amazon, and at Chrissy Dzioba’s live
shows.
Since the
release of
Far From Dreaming, many changes have taken place for
Chrissy. In 2002 she became a new addition to Milwaukee’s
popular cover band, The Orphans. During this time other
important issues were lingering such as finishing a senior
marketing thesis, piano recital, and a college graduation in
May. Chrissy decided to put the band on hold to concentrate on
school. Graduating in May of 2003 with a double major in
Marketing and Piano Pedagogy, she decided to return to her first
love of playing out as a solo and original artist and teaching
private guitar and piano. In 2005, pianist, guitarist, vocalist
and friend, Jess Hrobar has been added into the mix to create
Chrissy’s newest project Blonde On Blonde. Together they have
taken the Milwaukee scene by storm with heavier arrangements and
instrumentation, powerful harmonies, and a captivating
presence.
Chrissy
Dzioba has performed as featured guest artist on the
"Hotel Milwaukee" show on WI PBS Radio, and also at
Linneman's, The Ale House, Thai Joe’s, Thunder Bay Grille, Fox &
Hounds, Shank Hall, Kochanski’s Concertina Bar, Points East, The
Coffee House, colleges, private parties, weddings, and many
others. Chrissy is also very active with the Sojouner Truth
House, and in 2005 and 2008 she organized and directed the
successful benefit, Not Afraid, which had featured the talents
of local, female musicians and visual artists to raise money
for domestic abuse advocacy, awareness and resources for the
women’s shelter. She has been featured/shared the bill with
artists such as Stephanie Dosen, Lil’ Rev, Melaniejane, Joey
Leal, Matt Hendricks, Bill Camplin, and John Sieger, to name a
few. Publications such as Milwaukee Online, Shepherd Express,
Waukesha Freeman, the Lake Country Reporter, and
The Current have run featured articles about her many
musical talents.
In 2008,
Chrissy was nominated for WAMI Female Vocalist of the Year.
Blonde On Blonde
While
teaching piano and guitar at a music store, Chrissy befriended
the girl behind the counter, Jess Hrobar. Over the years, they
had known of each other through their mutual jazz piano teacher,
and it wasn’t until 2004 that they met face to face and a
friendship immediately formed.
Jessica
Hrobar began her career at age fourteen as a church organist.
One year later she began hitting the local pubs playing blues
and folk on saxophone in her father’s group, “The John and Rich
Show.” While keeping up with church gigs and late night blues
sessions, Jess began studying jazz piano with Carl Mussmann, an
established player based in Bay View. Working with Mussmann
changed Jess’ direction, musically speaking, and at age 18 she
began to play jazz and lounge piano in restaurants and private
parties. Her career began to evolve as she became involved in
rock/jam bands, North Country Fever and Litmus Vinyl.
It only made
sense to combine their talents into a two woman power folk duo –
Blonde On Blonde.
Honing their
skills around the Milwaukee music scene, Blonde On Blonde’s
music reaches out to listeners as a potpourri of folk, rock,
pop, jazz, and country. Most noted for their tight harmonies,
this acoustic duo brings guitar, keyboard and mandolin to a mix
of originals and covers. Blonde On Blonde also performs with
their Man Band (sax, electric guitar, bass and drums) for a
fuller, more rockin’ sound.
Blonde On
Blonde plays regularly at venues such as Paddy’s, The Ale House,
The Mosaic, Seven Seas, Allegro, and other Milwaukee area bars
and restaurants. Blonde On Blonde and the Man Band play at
Points East, BBC, Linneman’s, and the Up & Under. Covers include
classic rock tunes such as Beatles and Led Zeppelin, top forty
artists such as KT Tunstall and Jason Mraz, and the more
eclectic artists such as Tori Amos and Dresden Dolls. With a
slew of originals, Blonde On Blonde released their first album,
Folk N’ Soul in February of 2008.
Whiskey Belles
Chrissy Dzioba: guitar, banjitar, mandolin, vocals
Kimberly Unger: fiddle, vocals
Anjl Rodee: bass , accordion, vocals
Kimmy Unger
(violin) hails from a musical family and has been
playing violin since the age of 10. She almost abandoned
the violin in college, were it not for a hot guy named
Antonio that introduced her to Dave Matthews and
inspired her to start playing again. Kimmy also plays
with the Irish rockers Reilly, currently signed to Oglio
Records. She is continually fine-tuning a sound that
uses delay, distortion and other effects to create a
vibe of her own. Kimmy brings vibrant and rare
reverberations to the table, combining elements from
classical, blues, folk and rock.
Anjl
Rodee is a multi-instrumentalist/vocalist who has been a fixture
on the Milwaukee music scene for over 15 years. She has
performed across the country from Minneapolis to Chicago to
Austin, on national television and radio. Anjl has opened for
legendary performers such as Tom Petty, Ben Folds, Rod Stewart,
Michelle Branch, Heart, Kansas, and KISS, to name a few. A
crowning moment was singing "Take Me Home Tonight" with Eddie
Money at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. |