Spotlight on Rebakah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan’s “the trouble with fiction” is music for wallflowers and dreamers with a.d.d, a gentle mix of genres held together by velvety vocals and a unique point of view, and not what people tend to expect from a girl raised in an all black neighborhood in Cleveland.

“My father worked in a steel mill when I was young, and when he came home he wanted to get as far away from that world as possible. Music was the easiest escape.” So Rebekah grew up in a home filled with the sounds of everything from Debussy to Donny Hathaway, João Gilberto to James Cleveland and with the sense that musically, anything is possible, a concept in direct opposition to the urban limitations surrounding her.

As much as she loved music, pursuing it as a career never seemed feasible or wise. “Where I’m from you grow up and you get a job. A real job.” So after high school, she went off to college to study biomedical engineering. “I showed up wearing mocassins and mood rings, blasting the Cocteau Twins. To say I didn’t fit in is an understatement. People always thought I was in the wrong building. They would point me towards the art department. One day I realized they were right.” So here we are.

Rebekah financed, produced and is now releasing her 6 song EP, “The Trouble With Fiction” through her own Tea Party Records. For the recordings, Rebekah enlisted the help of the talented (and wonderfully sarcastic) musicians who play with her on stage, Butch (from the Eels, Rufus Wainwright and Tracy Chapman) on drums and percussion, John Ballinger (from Rufus Wainwright) on guitar and clarinet, and Jessica Catron on cello. The EP consists of 5 original songs and what is becoming a signature cover of “Dreams” by Stevie Nicks.

Rebekah never imagined she’d be wearing so many hats, artist, producer, label. “Being independent is more than a notion. I certainly never planned it this way, this is just how it has happened. And it’s hard. But with each little victory you’re more encouraged and it is incredibly empowering watching these little seeds you plant grow.” Thanks to many sleepless nights, Rebekah is starting to get airplay on stations like WRAS in Atlanta, CFUV in Victoria, CKUT in Montreal, KUMD in Duluth and WXPN in Philadelphia. And Rebekah was just chosen to perform this fall at the 2005 Nemo Music Conference, held every year in Boston. She will use the Nemo showcase as an anchor for her first east coast mini-tour. How she’ll organize and finance it is anybody’s guess. But she’s not discouraged by the daunting task ahead of her. “Obstacles are a given. I’m learning to welcome the chaos, it’s what makes the calm so sweet.”

[Rebekah Jordan Official Site]
[Rebekah’s page on My Space]

Read reviews of:
[The Trouble With Fiction]


Buy stuff:


REBEKAH JORDAN: The Trouble With Fiction

The Trouble With Fiction (2005)
Listen to tracks

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