PORT TOWNSEND — Is it possible to cook up a tuneful stew, a pot bubbling over with jazz, country, blues and grace?
George Rezendes of the Toolshed SoundLab studio thinks so.
Come Sunday evening, the music of Nina Simone, Dolly Parton, Jerry Garcia, Bill Withers, Norah Jones, Mavis Staples and Keb’ Mo’ will fill the intimate Key City Playhouse — on the voices of six local artists.
This is the first Singers’ Showcase at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, starring Lois Barnett, Hanna Lose-Frahn, Piper Dunlap, Alanna Dailey and Kate Copeland alongside Rezendes and his band the Toolshed Trio.
“We’re going to open up with ‘Let the Good Times Roll,’” with Barnett singing lead and the rest backing her up, said Rezendes. That should set the tone for a trip around the musical spectrum.
Lose-Frahn, a young Port Townsend singer, will sing Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” “Creepin’ In,” a duet previously done by Parton and Jones, and the Dixie Chicks’ “Cowboy, Take Me Away.”
Dunlap will come in with the Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter tunes “Friend of the Devil” and “Brokedown Palace,” with Rezendes singing harmony.
Dailey, another young singer who was inspired by the late jazzman Pete Toyne, has her interpretations of Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “I’d Rather Go Blind,” a blues made famous by Etta James.
“She’s got a big voice and a big presence,” Rezendes said of Dailey.
He’s gotten to know some of these vocalists in the harmony-singing workshop he runs at Toolshed SoundLab; others he just runs into around town.
They all wanted to sing out, he said, so Rezendes thought a showcase at the playhouse would be just fine. He asked each singer to submit a list of favorite songs, and then picked out the ones the Toolshed Trio could do.
“We’re just a knucklehead rock band,” quipped Rezendes, a longtime driver of Port Townsend’s acoustic-music scene.
Copeland, nee Kate Ettinger, will bring some of her original music to the mix: a waltz called “Come Hell or High Water,” and “Trouble,” a rocker.
Seems like no Singers Showcase would be complete without the Beatles, so Barnett will do “Come Together” — “she kills it,” Rezendes said. He and Copeland will get together on “I’ve Just Seen a Face.”
That duo will also do Taj Mahal’s “Texas Woman Blues;” Tom Petty’s “A Thing about You” and Cannonball Adderley’s “Sermonette” are also on Rezendes’ set list.
And the Toolshed Trio, Dave Meis on steel guitar, David Conklin on bass and Tomoki Sage on drums, will accompany the singers throughout.
To finish the evening, the singers will offer “Let Your Light Shine,” a message for the performers and audience.
“They adore each other,” Rezendes said of the singers.
“We’ve been having all kinds of fun together.”