Here\u2019s a name frequently seen in connection with music events around town, from the Juneau Cabaret to The Orpheus Project\u2019s recent \u201cWestside Story\u201d: Taylor Vidic.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuneau has a lot to offer if you want to use it. I\u2019m just thankful to have these opportunities,\u201d Vidic said on Wednesday during a brief interlude in her schedule.<\/p>\n
This April she\u2019ll be all over Juneau\u2019s music scene, especially at the Alaska Folk Festival. She\u2019ll perform alongside Tracy Ricker on Monday, will sing backup for Costa\u2019s House of Perpetual Devotion on Wednesday, and will lead a group of eight women called Queens to sing acapella around one mic on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Outside of the festival, she\u2019ll sing with close friend Cameron Brockett as The Quaintrelles for a Tiny Post Office Concert at the Kindred Post on Wednesday, and the group will play again at Louie\u2019s Douglas Inn after the Queens performance on Thursday (Vidic has a musical residency for the month at Louie\u2019s); and finally, both the Queens and The Quaintrelles will play at the Hangar Ballroom on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been gaining all these new skills, putting on shows in Skagway, playing guitar more, just getting a lot more confidence so I\u2019ve been able to take those skills and implement them in Juneau,\u201d Vidic said about Juneau\u2019s supportive environment.<\/p>\n
Vidic keeps herself busy working a seasonal job in Skagway in the summer, performing when she can, attending the University of Alaska Southeast and traveling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very conscious of the adults, especially, who have aided in my musical journey. So it is nice to be back for a little while to show them how it\u2019s manifested itself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s excited to play with Tracy Ricker, who hasn\u2019t performed at Folk Fest for more than 20 years. Ricker was a family friend who left Juneau for a period of 10 years before returning, Vidic recalled. As they reconnected and Vidic learned of Ricker\u2019s past in music, she knew they should play together. They\u2019ll be singing pieces that Ricker used to perform, like Elton John\u2019s \u201cFriends\u201d and Fleetwood Mac\u2019s \u201cLandslide.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Folk Fest two years ago, Vidic put together a group similar to the Queens. It was called the Ladies. Vidic handpicked each member for both groups after hearing all the women sing in other performances; she was just looking for other women she wanted to sing with. The Queens\u2019 set list is under wraps, but Vidic said they might perform choral music and perhaps something by Simon and Garfunkel.<\/p>\n
Singing has been a steady love for Vidic. She grew up listening to what she calls \u201cbig diva voices,\u201d like Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion and Aretha Franklin. When she was in second grade, she tried out for her school\u2019s talent show, singing Five for Fighting\u2019s \u201cSuperman.\u201d She wore a shirt with a hood and kept it pulled up as she stared at her feet through the entire performance, she said. But she enjoyed singing and kept at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn elementary school I was always kind of a leader,\u201d Vidic said. \u201cPeople called me bossy cause I was a girl and that\u2019s what leader-like girls are called. I think it was another way for me to be a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fifth grade, her choir teacher asked her to sing the National Anthem at the D.A.R.E. graduation, which had about 2,000 people, she estimated. After that, she just kept singing at local events and got involved with local music groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad played my manager and I just kept singing. I think that\u2019s how people in town have usually heard of me for the first time,\u201d Vidic said.<\/p>\n
She began piano lessons at 6 years old and in the past couple years, she\u2019s picked up the guitar too.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the ability to accompany yourself is huge, and it\u2019s hard to carry around a piano,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s her goal to develop and practice her own sound before taking her music beyond home. She\u2019s interested in doing house shows, and said she\u2019s been known to bring a dozen lamps to an event to create ambiance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s one of the reasons why I like music so much,\u201d Vidic explained. \u201cYou get to create an experience for people. People go to work all day and after work they want to feel like they\u2019re really living and existing and I get to play a role in those events, in those moments, and that feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor and Tracy will play on Monday, April 3 at 9:45 p.m., Queens at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, April 6 (starring Vidic, Brockett, Rashah McChesney, Elizabeth Ekins, Kylynn Machir, Celia Montalto, Cate Ross and Alyssa Abrams) and again from 9:30-11 p.m. at Louie\u2019s. The Quaintrelles\u2019 Tiny Post Office Concert will be on Wednesday, April 5 at 7 p.m. at the Kindred Post and again on Friday, April 7 at 10 p.m. at the Hangar Ballroom followed by Queens.<\/p>\n
Contact Capital City Weekly staff writer Clara Miller at clara.miller@capweek.com. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s a name frequently seen in connection with music events around town, from the Juneau Cabaret to The Orpheus Project\u2019s recent \u201cWestside Story\u201d: Taylor Vidic. \u201cJuneau has a lot to offer if you want to use it. I\u2019m just thankful to have these opportunities,\u201d Vidic said on Wednesday during a brief interlude in her schedule. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2402"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}