Daisy Rock Welcomes New Artists The Sledge Grits Band

 

LOS ANGELES, CA – July 8, 2008
Daisy Rock is pleased to announce the latest addition to their talented roster of artists: the talented Sledge Grits Band.  
 
Ranging in age from 6 to 13, sisters Keiko, Kariel, Mimi, and Kelly Jo comprise the Sledge Grits Band, and have been practicing their craft for the past 3 years together.  Performing a mix of covers and original material, the girls know what it takes to draw a crowd.
 
Past performances include the Monterey Bay Blues Festival and various community events throughout the Salinas and Gilroy area.  Their blues-infused guitar rhythms, positive energy, and vibrant appearance attract fans everywhere they perform, and Daisy Rock is excited to help the band through their success every step of the way.
 

Daisy Rock offers a complete line of girl guitars designed to look and sound great, and to fit the female form.  To learn more about Daisy Rock endorsed artists, and to view Daisy Rock’s entire line of guitars, visit daisyrock.com now!

 

To learn more about Daisy Rock artist The Sledge Grits Band, visit www.gritsworld.com.

 
ABOUT DAISY ROCK GUITARS
Daisy Rock is the original girl-guitar company dedicated to successfully supplying and marketing pro-quality guitars for females.  The company is led by its President, Tish Ciravolo, and co-owned and distributed by Alfred Publishing.  Daisy Rock’s ongoing mission is to provide females of all ages with whatever it takes to learn to play guitar and enjoy music.  Daisy Rock has established and continues to strengthen its reputation as “THE female guitar company.”
 
Daisy Rock, its talented management team, and its products have been continuously featured in worldwide mainstream media, including People, Time, Newsweek, CNN, ABC, NBC, FOX, VH1, the Premier Radio Network, BBC Radio, the Associated Press, etc. The company was founded solely by Tish Ciravolo in October 2000.
 

DAISY ROCK CONTACT:

Jessica Murillo

Artist Relations and Marketing Coordinator

P: 818-891-5999 ext. 285

F: 818-895-5301

Jessica@daisyrock.com

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 Monterey Herald August 21st, 2008

The opening act for the evening is the Monterey Bay Blues in the Schools Band featuring the Little Sledge Sisters. Ranging in age from 6 to 13, this four-piece family band may just steal the show.

As director for Blues in the Schools, the outreach program for the Monterey Bay Blues Festival, Dennis Murphy usually works just with middle and high schoolers,



(13-year-old Keiko sings in the Blues Festival Honor Band) but he knows exceptions when he sees them.
"Since their dedication level and their talent level is so high we took them on as a special unit," said Murphy.

This year's Blues fest brought two standing ovations for Keiko, 11-year-old Kariel, 8-year-old Mimi and 6-year-old drummer Kelly Jo II.

Through Murphy's band, for one, they've gotten input and stage time from professional musicians who've worked with the likes of the Doobie Brothers, Charlie Musselwhite, Billy Preston and others.

Murphy will back them for their set in Seaside.

"The girls are fully capable of handling that gig by themselves," he said. "They don't necessarily need me on stage with them. I'm there just to be there for them and facilitate what's already going to happen in a bigger way."

The Sledge Sisters belt out the covers, but also write.

"Keiko's songwriting ability is prolific," he said. "In my estimation, she's capable of writing hit songs. And Mimi interprets those songs so beautifully, the combination is amazing. The combination of all four is amazing."

Murphy was on his way to record with them, a song Keiko wrote called "Confidence." "I could easily see someone like Kanye West (doing that song)."

"The old soul thing is in place for all of them. I really think it comes from their thought process. Even as children, they're very deep thinkers," Murphy said.

No one doubts there's room to grow for the homeschooled foursome, but so far audiences have come away inspired.

So with all this music and so much discussion over Seaside's redevelopment plans for West Broadway section of the city, could there be, just maybe, among the Starbucks contracts, any hope of a permanent performance venue?

"Not in my lifetime," a pensive Pacheco offered, though he expects more acts to show up at the Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Course and hopes for a good relationship with the proposed hotel that's part of Reggie Jackson's project just as the city has been known to collaborate with Embassy Suites.

Ah, well. Be careful what you wish for. Big new venues could scratch "free" right off of Free Live Music.

Kathryn Petruccelli can be reached at montereybound@yahoo.com. GO!

BIG SOUND IN SMALL PACKAGE
Pint-size guitarslinger Mimi Sledge rocks the house; backed by veterans
By DENNIS TAYLOR
Monterey Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/30/2008 09:21:48 AM PDT


When Mimi Sledge becomes famous — which, judging from the two standing ovations she got Sunday at the Monterey Bay Blues Festival, won't take long — she has huge plans: "I want to buy a mansion and a puppy," she says.
Mimi, who is 8, plans to be a big singing star, like Whitney, Mariah or Aretha, which, despite her monstrous talent, is a fairly new aspiration.
"Up until recently, she wanted to be a lion," explains her father, Kelly Jo Sledge. "And her little sister (6-year-old Kelly Jo II, whom the family calls Bo-pah) is still planning to be a tiger."
Mimi, with guitar in hand, rocked the house Sunday on the President's Stage, where she was backed by some of the best-known musicians on the Central Coast — keyboardist Dale Ockerman (formerly of the Doobie Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service), guitarists Mike Lent (who has toured with Barry Manilow and Jeffrey Osbourne) and "Mighty" Mike Schermer (Maria Muldaur, Elvin Bishop), drummer June Core (who played later in the day behind Charlie Musselwhite), and Dennis Murphy, who not only heads the Dennis Murphy Band, but also is director of Monterey County's "Blues In The Schools" program. (Each of the aforementioned players is a clinician in Murphy's program, and Ockerman has his own private school for young musicians in Santa Cruz.)
"It was exciting, but I wasn't nervous," Mimi said after belting out Aretha Franklin's "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama." "There
were so many people watching me when I went up there — this was pretty big for me — but I don't get nervous very much."
Well, heck, she's been doing it for a long time. She started singing opera with her mom at age 5. She picked up a guitar a short time later and never put it down. By the time she was 6, she was interrupting her singing coach — Mommy — to tell her she was singing off-key.
"And when she did that, I realized she was right. I was off-key. She just has an ear for it," said her mother, Wendy Lynn Sledge.
She's not the only one with some natural chops. Little Bo-pah, the 6-year-old, is the drummer for The Sledge Grits Band.
Mimi sings lead and plays guitar. The bass player is 11-year-old Kariel, and big sister Keiko, 13, handles lead guitar and backup vocals.
The band brought home top honors in its category earlier this year — and Keiko won as an individual performer — at the Seaside Talent Show — award trinkets that were added to an already-full wall next to the staircase in the family home. But Mom and Dad are anything but prototypical stage parents.
"The Sledges are a family, first and foremost," says Murphy, who coaches Kariel in his "Blues In The Schools" honor band. "The girls are musicians second, and that's the foundation by which they're able to get more expanded, more into their expression, as musicians."
And their talent?
"Unbelievable," he marvels. "Mimi is absolutely incredible, and they're all going to be forces to be reckoned with on their own levels."
Where the talent came from is a good question. Kelly Jo says he helps Mimi with her stage choreography, but says he's strictly an amateur. Wendy had vocal training as a child, but her music lessons ended there.
"But most of it ... I'd have to say it comes from up above," Kelly Jo says. "There's no other explanation for some of the things those girls do."
Some of the things they do — garage-band videos of "Wild Thing" and "Mississippi Girl" — can be viewed on YouTube, or via the Sledge GritsBand home page at www.myspace.com/sledgegrits.
The sisters will appear on July 4 in Downtown Salinas (time TBA), and at 1 p.m. July 26 at CSU-Monterey Bay's World Theatre, where they'll perform both individually and as a group at the Marina Youth Arts Summer Talent Showcase.

Dennis Taylor can be reached at dtaylor@montereyherald.com or 646-4344.
Video of the Sledge G.R.I.T.S. Band can be viewed at profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile.&friendid=369205351.