Friday, April 24, 2009
Join an All-Star Line Up of Woodstock Musicians as they raise money to
benefit local musician and friend Ted Orr for much needed eye surgery.
The show will feature the legendary Woodstock talents Jack DeJohnette
and David Sancious, John Sebastian, Mambo Kikongo, Voodelic, Stoney
Clove Lane, Ras T, Duchess of Funk, Gilles Malkine, Chimi Choden and DJ
Dave Leonard.

I am going to be an extra in the film Taking Woodstock directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, The Hulk). Shooting of the film ran through September-October 2008 and it should be in theaters in August of 2009.

Alana was born and raised in Woodstock, NY, USA. She took to bass naturally, learning mostly from her father, with supplemental lessons from Bad Brains bassist, Daryl Jenifer, who considers her his protogé. She picked up the bass at age 16 after having learned to play the drums at age 11, and was playing gigs within the first year of owning a bass. While there in Woodstock, she established herself as a very well-known bassist in the area, as she devoted all her free time to music and kept herself busy gigging, recording and playing music in a variety of genres. While living in Woodstock, she was an active member in more than 5 gigging bands at once for several years before relocating across the country to Seattle, WA in 2005.

Alana's blossoming career has already taken her to festivals, stadiums, theaters and arenas throughout the world where she has played to crowds of upwards of 10,000. She has played with countless famous musicians including George Clinton and members of P-Funk (and continues to do so), members of Bad Brains, and numerous others. The Duchess Of Funk, as she came to be known, even got the opportunity to play for Prince at his mansion in LA while in the company of Grammy award winner, Van Hunt and his manager, Randy Jackson (Journey, American Idol). Alana was the touring bassist for Van Hunt throughout Spring/Summer 2006 with whom she has opened for Mary J. Blige, Anthony Hamilton, Heather Headley, The Brand New Heavies, and has appeared on all the major late night television shows including The Late Show With David Letterman, Late Night With Conan O'Brian, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, and The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson as well as CD USA twice and a live broadcast in Paris. With Van Hunt, Alana has played across the United States several times as well as major cities and venues throughout Europe and Japan including the internationally reknowned, Wembly Arena.

Alana is currently working on writing & recording songs for her solo project which puts the spotlight on her bass playing but also features her on vocals, drums and guitar with the production assistance and keyboard genius of Michael Schirmer. Her live performance features the masterful musical inclusions of her band members, as well as other notable names and magnificent talents so be on the lookout for upcoming tour dates!

Duchess will be playing bass on NBC's Steve Wilkos Show for 4 days in a row with Megan McCauley (Wind Up Records). Airtime TBA.

Visit her website at: http://www.duchessoffunk.com










INFLUENCES:

Bass Players

Flea

Les Claypool

Bootsy Collins

Larry Graham

Victor Wooten

Marcus Miller

Stanley Clarke

Jaco Pastorius

James Jamerson

Tony Levin

Lige Curry

Billy "Bass" Nelson

Rodney "Skeet" Curtis

Daryll Jenifer

Curtis Whitehead

Kim Clarke

Stuart Zender

Squarepusher

Robbie Shakespeare






James Brown,
P-Funk,
420 Funk Mob,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Jimi Hendrix,
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Jamiroquai,
Led Zeppelin,
Stevie Wonder,
Prince,
Ohio Players,
Michael Jackson,
Aretha Franklin,
Ray Charles,
BB King,
Albert King,
Robert Johnson,
Bob Marley,
Ziggy Marley,
Janis Joplin,
Me'shell N'degeocello,
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones,
Tschaikovski, Bach, Mozart,
Miles Davis,
Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington,
Thelonious Monk,
Ornette Colemn,
James "Blood" Ulmer,
Jack DeJohnette,
Herbie Hancock,
John Zorn,
Secret Cheifs 3,
Mr. Bungle,
Primus,
Defunkt,
Bad Brains,
Seattle Grunge in the 90's:
Pearl Jam,
Alice In Chains,
Nirvana,
Soundgarden,
Stone Temple Pilots,
Smashing Pumpkins,
Bush,
311,
Sublime,
Rage Against The Machine,
Metallica,
System Of A Down,
The Mars Volta,
Frank Zappa,
Weapon Of Choice,
Macy Grey,
this list could go on forever!
DJ Shadow,
Theivery Corporation,
Bjork,
MMW,
A Tribe Called Quest,
Busta Rhymes,
Ozo Matli,
Beastie Boys,
Blackalicious,
Cypress Hill,
Del The Funkee Homosapien,
Gorillaz
Sting & The Police,
Pink Floyd,
Joni Mitchell,
Jeff Buckley,
DreamTheater,
Mahavishnu Orchestra,
Jeff Beck,
Tom Waits,
Band Of Gypsies,
Phish,
Santana,
Earth Wind & Fire,
Seal,
Mary J. Blige,
Lenny Kravitz,
Al Green,
Curtis Mayfield,
And so many more I can't even think of right now!

Please watch all the way through

..

This is my Dad. Check him out:

http://guitarplayerzen.com/2008/01/23/featured-artist-of-the-week-ted-orr/

Mike and I were up until 7:00 am on Christmas Eve (or was it Christmas Day?) working on this song. I cut my last track after a half-assed cat nap at about 6:30am and poor Mike was up all night mixing it. I wanted to have it ready for Christmas so bad that I put it up for download before it was ready. But now that I've had time to work on it, I added some slap bass to accompany the drums (that were formerly not present when I tracked my bass initially) and Mike had a chance to put more time into mixing it And now it is free for anyone to download!
We lovingly call it "Break Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy".
Thanks to Michael Schirmer for the keys (bells) and the producing, arranging, mixing, engineering and editing!
I played Mike's arrangement of all the string and horn parts on the bass and threw in a dash of some of my own special sauce. Hope you can dig it!
Love and Peace...
Alana

I had some of my old songs saved on my old external hard drive - so even though the hard drive in my computer crashed, I can still put up some songs for people to listen to! They're old versions but at least it's something until I get the new ones finished and up!

And I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has stuck by me through all of this! I really appreciate your support! You're true friends! Rock on!

I can't beleive this keeps happening!

So on top of my myspace profileS being hacked into and having all sorts of friends, pictures, messages and ALL my songs deleted - I now can't replace the fucking songs and pictures because my fucking hard drive failed! Life is a bitch! At least I have some of my songs backed up at the studio I'm working in. But I lost ALL my iTunes, photos, everything. EVERYTHING!

Ok, ok. ... So when I let my anger subside, I realize there is more to life than cyberspace. I'd rather be taking a walk through the woods on a beautiful day in the Northeast than sitting in front of a lap top, ranting and raving over how all I have to show for the last 3 or 4 years of my life is a few thousand less friends on myspace and no songs (Oh wait, I'm getting side-tracked). I have better things to do than bitch - I have to recover this shit. Take new pictures, blah blah blah. It sucks to start fresh, because people take you less seriously... but I have faith in life. I feel like things will work themselves out. I've gotta keep my head above water and just stay focused on getting these new songs finished.

But I gotta tell you, this whole hacker thing is totally bugging me out. Who would do this and why? Really? It turned from a hacker to a stalker when they repeatedly hacked my profile after I changed my password uncountable times, and I even changed my e-mail address for this profile and this mofo is still - even as we speak - hacking in and continuously deleting friends. But what weirds me out is that why would this person stop deleting friends when is gets down to about 4,800 - ish? I regained enough friends to pass the 5,000 mark once and they deleted them back down to 4,800. WTF?!?!?!? I would've easily had over 10,000 friends by now if this sucker didn't fuck me royally. And not only that - it's the same person who is hacking my personal profile which has been hidden from the public eye and no one has ever fucked with me on it since I created it in 2004! You have to know my last name to add my personal profile and I keep it restricted to friends (and a few bands I like). This is a classic case of a STALKER! I need to get this asshole thrown in jail!! I know it's the same person because at one point, I was off the computer for a few days when my hard drive failed and when I got it replaced, I went to check my profiles and my passwords didn't work (I don't use the same password for both, thanks). I asked to retrieve my passwords via e-mail and dickface changed it - to the same retarded password for both profiles! It almost seems a little pointless that I created all new profiles because this person obviously has the technology to be able to hack in - no matter what your password is and who knows it or DOESN'T KNOW IT - and no matter what profile it is. As much as I want to give up, I can't. I've had too many good things in my life arise out of this myspace profile (Van Hunt, Sly & Robbie, etc.). I know some people think "oh, it's just stupid myspace" but in actuality it's the greatest networking tool there ever was. I need this shit. That's why it's so devistating to lose so much when you've put so much time and work into making it what it is! Anybody who knows me, knows I've definitely done my time! I'm no geek or anything but - - - Ahh, who cares. Fuck this. I seriously don't need to be wasting energy being upset when I could be enjoying the beautiful wheather. I need to stop partying every damn night with friends and sit down and write some lyrics and come back and have something real to give. No more of this half-assed "almost finished songs" bullshit. I should be looking at this as a blessing in disguise. I'm happy in life. I'm grateful for what I have and I'm not going to lose my cool over this. People can take away everything you own, but people can't take away your knowledge, experience, or spirit. Sorry about the little bitch session (I needed that). Peace out.

Duchess.

I just logged into my profile last night to find that half my friends had been deleted. I am so fucking fed up with this hacker bullshit! This is the third time someone has hacked into my account! I change my password like every other day. Now I'm missing a very valuable chunk of networking material! I have nearly 5,000 friends marked on my profile visitor map (which is fairly new) but less than that in actual friends!! It's rediculous!!

So... if you have any questions as to if/why you got deleted from my friends list... I didn't do it. I love you there. Add me back! And if you feel so inclined, SPREAD THE WORD and help me recover thousands on my missing friends, please!

Thanks for understanding!

Alana