Groovelily's Valerie Vigoda Checks In

Valerie Vigoda, electric violinist/singer from GrooveLily here.

My bandmates and I could not be more thrilled to be coming to Arena Stage for 2 weeks, to perform our holiday show STRIKING 12. I grew up in the area (for the first 5 years of my life I was Valerie Vigoda from Vienna, Virginia...and my parents ended up settling for good in nearby McLean), so for me this will be an extended homecoming.

When I started the band and moved to New York 15 years ago, one of the first songs I ever wrote with Brendan Milburn (my bandmate/collaborator and also my husband!) was about my home state: we recorded it way back in 1995, and it's called "Goodbye Virginia."

I'm still proud of that song, and at the same time, I think we've come a very long way since then. I think it's perfect that we'll be performing at Arena's Crystal City location, because we'll be saying "Hello Virginia" in the most literal sense.

We'll also have even more to celebrate upon our arrival: 1) the re-release of our STRIKING 12 CD on PS Classics, including for the first time a special card to allow you to download the new songs we’ve written for the show since that CD was released; and 2) our first-ever official published song folio, courtesy of Warner/Chappell and Alfred Music! Eight songs from STRIKING 12 will be included, in full beautiful old-fashioned piano/vocal sheet music style.

See you at Arena Dec 2-13; we can't wait.

Comments

[Fran and Steve]

We just came from the Arena show. Unbelievably much fun. The music is spectacular, the words are hugely clever, and the enunciation was amazingly clear which let us enjoy the words (even with such rich musical accompaniment) without missing a one. The mix of "show" and "talking to the audience outside the 'show'" worked really well. I'm amazed that I had never heard of GrooveLily until now, but we're total fans after seeing Striking 12. Wow! (And, Brendan, as suggested, I just sent out a blast email encouraging people to go see it before it leaves.)

[tennis tickets Inspector]

I heard "Goodbye, Virginia" on the radio. Not sure, if it's the same song, though.