ALICE DI MICELE TRIO
Event description
“Alice’s music
has that great combination of earthiness and groove that keeps
it funky from the inside out. She’s
for real.”
– Bonnie Raitt
Alice DiMicele is an Americana/ Folk Singer-Songwriter based in Southern Oregon. Her voice is rangy, sometimes soft and intimate, other times bold and brassy, evoking a distinct mood in every song she sings. Alice built a dedicated fan base as an independent musician with stirring live performances spanning a three-decade career. Her new album, Every Seed We Plant, is her sixteenth release, a snapshot of life in these times – gut-wrenching, hopeful, vulnerable, intense.
Alice collaborated with producer Bret Levick, who co-produced, arranged, and co-wrote the first track on her new release, leading Alice’s music into new territory. Pop, jazz, and rock and roll undercurrents flow beneath folk bedrock on this record. Her long-time bassists, Rob Kohler and Damian Erskine, joined talented players Bret Levick, Gene Black, Skip Edwards, David Jacobs- Strain, Jenny Conlee-Drizos, Andy Thorn, Terence Higgins, Barry Phillips, Dean Angermeier, Bob Evoniuk, Mikey Stevens, Matthew Kriemelman, and Christo Pellani on this album. Alice recorded her vocals and guitar tracks at her Tiny Wonderland studio in Southern Oregon.
The title track, Every Seed We Plant, was inspired by Alice’s dear friend and elder of the Takelma Tribe, Agnes Pilgrim Baker. “It was written on the way to Grandma Aggie’s memorial. The song overtook me, flowed out of me like Grandma was there guiding me. I wrote it, played it once, then sang it that day for her family and friends.”
The singles, Long Dry Winter and Alone, explore the grief, loss, and depression that many people experience these days. “I hope the songs remind folks to reach out and just simply be a presence for someone.” The new album balances the deeper emotional waters it treads with uplifting, lighter love songs like Free, and the fun, sparkly track, Sunrise.
In 2017, while mixing her One With The Tide album, she bonded with Bret Levick over rock and roll idol
Tom Petty, whose untimely death that year inspired Bret and Alice to start the band Petty Thievery. This deep dive into Petty songs influencedAlice’s songwriting, “Getting inside another songwriter’s head by playing so many of his songs has really opened me up in a new way.”
As an accomplished songwriter, Alice draws on folk, jazz, blues, R & B, and rock & roll influences, landing her music consistently on AAA, Folk, Americana, and Community radio stations around the country and internationally, including syndicated shows. Her deep acoustic groove, unique vocal style, and heartfelt lyrics create an unmistakable sound that is all her own.
She is a delightful performer and has shared stages with Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, JJ Cale, David Grisman Quartet, Steve Winwood, Ferron, Peter Rowan, Richie Havens, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and so many others. Alice has also performed at many festivals, including Strawberry Music Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Oregon Country Fair, Joshua Tree Music Festivals, Britt Festivals, and Kate Wolf Music Festival.
Originally from New Jersey, Alice grew up singing in school choirs, “I sang on the way to school, and back home. I just made stuff up.” On her eleventh birthday, Alice’s Grandmother gave her Stevie Wonder’s album, Songs In The Key Of Life, “I learned every word, every note, and every nuance of that album by listening to it over and over.” She picked up the guitar at age 17 and honed her skills playing in coffeehouses in upstate New York and New Jersey. In 1986, she found her home in Southern Oregon and released her first recording in 1988,Make A Change.
Sixteen albums later, Alice is focused and clear on her mission, “I love solid, moving rhythm, and I do a lot of improvising vocally. I feel completely at home on stage. My job as a musician is to communicate emotion and stir that place inside that feels connected to other souls.”