Live & Local: The Kelzana Independent Artist Showcase
Women luminaries like Mary Lou Williams, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and many others paved the way towards normalizing a leading woman's presence on the stage. They burst out in a world that didn't necessarily have open arms to a woman who 1. knows her worth and 2. is taking charge of her destiny. As avid music and live music lovers, we know it's still not as common to see a women led band so shout out to the amazing women-identifying musicians leading the way. We are seeing more and more representation every day - and for that I say you go girl! The reality is that women are still overcoming similar hurdles today.
In celebration of International Women's Month, the Kelzana Independent Artist Showcase happening at Dazzle on Tuesday, March 25, features four women musicians in Denver and beyond: Jesse Williams out of North Georgia and Denver's own Kayla Marque, DZIRAE GOLD, and Elyse Jeanette. I reached out to them to learn what they've been up to musically, and it led to an empowering conversation about being a woman in the industry. Here are their insights around being a woman creative, some of the challenges unique to being femme on the stage, and advice for young artists coming up on the scene.
They also shared with me some of the women in their lives that helped fan their creative flames.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Jesse Williams is a mountain mama from a different mountain range, the Appalachian mountains of North Georgia, with roots grounded in blues and soul. She considers her music "Melody Medicine" and has been busy in the studio recording her 3rd album. She just released its first single "Quit Quiet" on March 20.
"Definitely my mama: moms are the unsung heroes! I give my dad and my Papa Michael a lot of credit because they were the musicians, but my mom was the one who was shuttling me to every open mic, every show. And at that time too, I was a year or two into doing music in that sense, and I had a boyfriend and I was just kind of moaning and groaning about the whole experience - It was very much being that age. Once I was there, I was like, 'oh, this is so great.' But all of the before stuff, she had to drag me because I was a kid and a little s***head, but she believed in me and she pushed me and she was there for so many shows - I mean more than anybody! And then also aside from taking on the role of managing someone that she believes in, and also being her kid who knows nothing of the world, she also exposed me to Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin. She had these DJ CDs in her Durango, and when she would pick my brother and I up from elementary school, I didn't know the names of these people, but I had begun to recognize even the song before the song and be like, 'oh, that song is coming up because there's that one.' My first Bonnie Raitt song that just gripped me in a choke hold was "(Goin') Wild For You Baby." And I was six years old. I didn't know anything about longing, nothing like that. But I remember when that song would come on, I would get so solemn, like no one could talk to me. I'm looking out the window like, God, struck by the moon!"
Singer/songwriter Kayla Marque is a Sparkly Dark Ritual Pop musician and Opener of Portals based here in Denver. Recently off of an international tour promoting her third studio album Midheaven released August 2024, she has been taking the time to rest ahead of a busy 2025 season.
"Musically, I grew up on people like Aretha, Whitney Houston. I loved Selena. Something also, I grew up as an athlete, so that's a big part of just my energy. So, I tend to look to that also as a source of mentorship. I watch people like Serena, her documentaries and things are very inspiring, so I kind of pull from more than just music. It's not easy to find a mentor or I haven't found it easy. I do have one woman, her name is Melissa Renée. She is a million things, a festival producer and things like that, so shout out to her! She has provided beautiful friendship and guidance to me, but outside of that, it hasn't been a thing. So, I became a mentor and I actually run a mentorship program because mentorship is so important. I think it's very overlooked, but the people that I can think of back to childhood that really have inspired me and made a deep imprint and impact on my life were my coaches and my teachers. And so (like) that quote 'be the thing that you seek,' since I couldn't really find one, I decided to become one"
Singer/songwriter/pianist DZIRAE GOLD aka "Denver's Golden Girl" is a Lyric Soprano trained opera singer that blends her classical training with her Chicagoland upbringing, jazz, and soul roots. She released her debut album Right on Time in May 2024 and is back to writing with a new single in the works titled "8th Avenue"
"There were so many.. Okay so I grew up not super wealthy and I could not afford voice lessons, but I knew I loved singing - I pretty much came out of the womb singing. So, I think it was around sixth or seventh grade that I was in a choir at my church, and the choir director was like, 'you should be in lessons. You have so much potential and it's going to be amazing.' And because I couldn't afford it, she offered me a full scholarship. She just kind of footed the bill and taught me for several years. She was the first person to teach me voice and piano and to really just fan the flame, as you said. And then from there, I went to high school, entered the choir program at my high school, and yet another woman heard something special in me and really wanted to help develop it, which was how I got placed on the classical track because it was a classical choir. I was in acapella choir, and then the madrigal choir. So she was training me to study this very specific genre and style. And I'm really grateful for her because again, she gave me private lessons and coached me and then helped me get to the Allstate Honors Choir. I was the number one soprano in my district in high school. And so that just further encouraged me to pursue this path. And then from there, I mean, I've had so many voice teachers, female voice teachers that have helped me develop and find my sound and coax the really good stuff out of me, encouraged me to push boundaries and take risks. So, a lot of, I would say almost all of, my artistry and who I am today as a professional is owed to all of these great women that brought me up."
Singer/songwriter Elyse Jeanette co-leads 4 piece band Jeanette//Streight with instrumentalist Dylan Streight. It's a blend of jazz and R&B done right here in our city of Denver. They released their debut EP On Our Sleeves on Feb 14th of this year.
"When I first started in the music scene, I was a background vocalist for my friend Emma Wallingford, and I was in that band for three years, and every now and then we will do a reunion show. To be on a stage fronting with two other women and just being able to blend our voices together and have fun, that really sort of showed me what being in a regularly performing band could be, that was sort of my first taste of it. And so, the person who I was singing backup vocals with was Teresa Suydam, and she is making her name as she's a Native Filipino non-binary artist who is constantly releasing music, and she has definitely inspired me to just put music out because we get really critical of ourselves. We start to write songs and then over time we start to dislike the songs that we wrote. We don't like our voices. We're like, I should have sang that different. I should have did that different. That lyric sounds cringe. And so, Teresa really inspired me to release music. The rule that she said is that if you like it 80%, then the other 20% will come from friends and family and fans, and that validation comes from the public. And then somebody else who has inspired me to put my best foot forward when it comes to live stage performances is Jocelyn Ford Keel. JoFoKe, she's kind of like my idol and she would hate to hear me say that, but whenever I see her perform, I just want to be better. I want to write better transitions and songs. I want to write new arrangements for songs that I already love, create covers.. She really inspires me to be a better musician. Luckily there are a lot of women that came before me that have given me a lot of advice. Michelle Rocqet, Andrea Pares. There are so many women that I am blessed to not just have worked with, but be really good friends with that are also in the music industry that have given me advice, that I've been to so many of their shows, that I've shared the stage with on multiple counts. And so I definitely feel like I have a community of women that I can reach out to"
On The Morning Set's "Live & Local", we featured the following piece to give a taste of their individual sounds and to share what they have lined up for this celebration:
The Kelzana Independent Artist Showcase takes place Tuesday, March 25th at 7:00 p.m. MT.
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