Singing from the Soul for Solace and School Loans
By Lisa Morgan
I first heard this lovely nightingale at Bar in Palm Springs. Giselle Woo, an amazing songstress herself, was hosting a singer/songwriter night at Bar. The rules were clear. There would only be one vocal microphone and one guitar microphone on the stage. You could also plug into Giselle’s pickup; heck, you could even use her precious guitar (that’s just how Giselle rolls). I’d never been to a singer/songwriter night here in the desert. Tonight, under Woo’s instruction, this was going to be a listening room; an event to truly showcase the songwriter. I looked forward to hearing Giselle’s beautiful voice and stirring music of which I was already a huge fan, but beyond that I had no expectations. If I had, they would have been blown clean out of the water. The very first artist to take the stage after Giselle was Miss Vanessa Reddin, a pretty, little, blonde thing who stepped up to the stage without airs, just her and her guitar. She handled her guitar like she’d been doing it for at least a decade. A sweet melody began to resonate from her acoustic. That was nice enough, but then the girl opened her mouth to sing and I was floored. Her warm, beautiful, throaty vocals seemed to be drawn from a deep well inside of her that not every vocalist knows how to draw from. The mere sound of her music, the guitar and vocals blending together, made me yearn to hear every word of the song she was singing. Phrases poured out of this girl that painted immediate, relatable, emotional pictures. She was the entire package as a singer/songwriter. I should have known. After all, Giselle seems to surround herself with the best musicians and artists in the desert.
Vanessa grew up around music. Grandpa was an opera singer; Grandma was a background singer for a funk and blues band in the 70’s. According to her family, she was humming and singing before she could even talk. But Vanessa didn’t actually pick up her guitar and start writing and singing her own songs until about four years ago. “It wasn’t until I went to college and needed some sort of outlet and form of expression that I started playing and writing my own songs.” A student of the infamous Drexel University in Philadelphia, she studied Entertainment and Arts Management. “I wanted to be on the business side of music. The ultimate conflict in my heart and brain right now, are whether to be a performer or a manger. I do love the business, the industry and being surrounded by music. I have worked at Coachella Music and Arts Festival in stage production for the past two years and worked in several venues in Philadelphia, when I lived back there. I do love the backstage production aspect of putting a whole show together. Honestly, I would love to do both. But if I had to choose one full time, I’d choose performing. It’s kind of funny because I’ve been working in production on a big stage and caught myself thinking, ‘I want to be ON this stage!’” Once Vanessa began to pick up a guitar and write and sing it took her a year and a half to work up the courage to leave her living room with her songs. “These are my words and my experiences and my emotions. It’s taken me a long time to get to the point where it’s just the raw me and the emotion of my music.”
Vanessa’s music can be found on YouTube, with songs recorded at The Hood in Palm Desert’s open mic night. Songs like All the Mundane, Who You Are, Just Say It and Wild Ones show this self-sufficient musician pouring her heart out beautifully and eloquently. Even amidst the somewhat inattentive crowd, the beauty of her art is not lost. But I would have to say her most recent recording, Tonight, find her on Facebook music page, www.facebook.com/vanessareddinmusic, is the best reflection of what she and her music have to offer today. “Tonight is a super stripped down, raw and naked, song recorded in one take…just me and my guitar and my voice and that’s it. I’d like to explore that route more.”
While Miss Reddin is educated and experienced in the business side of music, the conflict for her comes in having to use her business skills to promote herself. “It’s not that I don’t want to be successful and ‘go for it’. Music is just such a personal thing to me that helps me get through things. If I can share it with someone and it helps someone with something they’re going through, then that, for me, is the biggest reward.” I have to say, that if her music is helping her get through things right now, then it is very likely to touch and heal the hearts of many. Vanessa isn’t going through just any ordinary difficult time. Along with having to find a way to pay her school loans and make a living for herself, Vanessa struggles with very personal issues within her family. The whole reason she moved to the desert initially, after building a life in Philadelphia for six years, was to help her mother who was diagnosed with Cancer two years ago. “Even though it’s been really emotional and tough – probably the hardest two years of my life – I feel so blessed to have met Giselle Woo and Symara Stone (another phenomenal singer/songwriter). They’ve been an amazing part of my life.”
You can now experience the music and the musicianship of Vanessa Reddin for yourself weekly at Escena Golf Course Bar and Lounge, 1100 Clubhouse View Drive, Palm Springs, every Friday and Saturday night, from 5-9pm. Follow Vanessa’s music and other bookings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/vanessareddinmusic. This will be one songbird that will be fun to watch take flight.
