During rehearsal with her band, Dakota, Michelle Hemmer has been known to suddenly launch into a flaming acoustic rendition of Poison's "Every Rose Has its Thorn," complete with heavy metal facial expressions. Hemmer has a deep love of 80's hair bands (she'll proudly show you a photo of her teenage self backstage with Bret Michaels), but she's somehow managed to fuse that influence with a wide spectrum of musical styles that includes the Indigo Girls, Counting Crows and the Eagles to produce a hauntingly original style.Michelle started writing and playing guitar while she was a student at Ohio University. After moving to LA she became frustrated with performing as a solo artist. "When I sing," she says, "I always hear a second melody in my head. I hate singing by myself because I always feel like there is something missing." To add more texture, she teamed up with Georgia-born singer Claudette Powell, who eventually started co-writing and adding her blues, honky tonk and gospel style to the mix. Hemmer and Powell worked out intricate, unorthodox harmonies and counter-melodies to their songs and quickly laid down a rich vocal foundation. They then added top-notch bassists, electric guitar players and drummers and expanded into a powerful, full sound.Dakota has built a respectable fan base and has even won the admiration of the hard-to-impress L.A. music community. Music Connection Magazine just included them in its annual "Hot 100 Unsigned Artists" list, and they released their second full-length CD, "Another Round" on Sept. 17. This month, Dakota's music was featured in 3 episodes of "Zoey 101" on Nickelodeon and on the WB show "Related."
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