Rhys – FIRST CONCERT EVER

In this First Concert Ever segment, the pop rock artist, Rhys, talks about the story of her first experience with live music. You can check out the story, after the break.

I grew up in Portland, Oregon- on the west coast of the United States. As kids, my big sister and I were practically forced to listen to my dad’s CD’s day in and day out. This used to be frustrating since all we wanted to listen to was Avril Lavigne (before she was replaced with a doppelganger) and Kelly Clarkson, but now I admittedly find myself listening to the exact same music as him.

My memory is terrible, not unlike a goldfish, but I remember my first festival. We visited some family friends pretty frequently in Seattle, which is about a 2 ½ hour drive from Portland, Seattle in its turn is like the same distance from Vancouver, Canada. So one year, when I was about 9, our two families got together and drove to the Vancouver Folk Festival.

The festival lasted 3 days and I remember feeling so at peace sitting there in the heat on the grass with a pizza slice, lemonade and great folk artists on stage in front of me. That was the first time I was close to the music live scene, and I loved it. I loved seeing and hearing singer/songwriters perform their story-telling lyrics and I loved their personal small talk in between songs. I also had this really strong urge to take over and jump up on stage.

One artist and song especially stuck with me. Patty Griffin and her song “Rain”, I recommend it. I actually recorded a cover of Rain the first time I recorded in a studio, the cover isn’t very good in hindsight, but it’s kind of cool to see that the festival experience kind of influenced my first studio moment.

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