Choreographed by Esther M. Baker-Tarpaga -- btdanceproject.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Raige
Pierson has long held a vision of the revival of the sweet and haunting sounds of old-time music, particularly the mountain ballads sung since the early 19th century in the mountains of West Virginia, where she grew up singing in a Baptist church.While staying true to the spirit of Old-time and honoring it's rich traditions, Raige simultaneously recreates and reinvents this richly melodic music for the 21st century. She pushes the boundaries of folk music, blurring categories with her fiery, soulful performances. Counted among her influences are artists as diverse as Jean Ritchie, Hazel Dickens, Joni Mitchell, Siouxsie Sioux, Sinead O'Connor, Kurt Cobain and Loretta Lynn.Drawing upon twelve years of filmmaking, collecting American roots music and vintage amplified dulcimers, her sets range from soulful old-time ballads and rocking string-and-rhythm dance band music to traditionally-inspired original pieces. Raige's LA-based Appalachian roots rock band To the Dogs has performed in some of the city's premiere rock clubs including repeat shows at THE KNITTING FACTORY (Los Angeles), TEMPLE BAR, THE SMELL, THE VIPER ROOM, THE HOUSE OF BLUES, Hollywood, and for 13 more or less consecutive years for the Annual LA Performance Marathon to benefit her artistic homebase since 1991, Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood.Raige joined Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood in 1991, and won an LA Weekly Theatre Award for her first acting role (Swap Nite, 1993). Despite early success, Raige moved away from acting to return to her musical roots, a process that began with the creation of outlandish musical personas for theatrical productions with director/collaborator Steve Morgan Haskell at NOTE. She wrote her first song (Good Friday) for the multi-award nominated Burrhead (1995), where she played a bald, singing swamp bride. The next year, in Blue Monkey Love Cuts (1996), she blended live unaccompanied vocal improvisation with the Appalachian traditional ballad Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies, and performed it all as a blue singing tree.Her musical metamorphosis overlapped and was doubtlessly brought on by serendipitous work as an assitant editor on the mini-series America's Music: The Roots of Country (aired TBS, June 1996) directed by Tom Neff. Ironically, it was on film in a dark cutting room in Los Angeles that Raige first heard the mountain dulcimer and ballads of Jean Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky. The same year, she heard Daniel Lanios play the dulcimer on Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball...and stick a fork in her, she was done.Fully converted, Raige heeded the call and returned back home to her musical roots in West Virginia. For two years, she reimmersed herself in the best and truest songs she'd ever heard and the communities of people in the mountains who sing them. Her sometimes dark sometimes light, always soulful vocal performances and unique rhythmic strumming-patterns on the dulcimer have reached West Virginia and Southern California festival stages, including the Augusta Heritage Festival (for which she was awarded a vocal scholarship in 1998), West Virginia State Folk Festival, Topanga Banjo Fiddle Festival, UCLA VITAS Film & Folklore Festival, and LadyFest Los Angeles. University campus performances include UT at Austin, Cal State San Marcos, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Long Beach, Ventura College, and UCLA, where she is currently a finishing a Ph.D. in Culture & Performance Studies.
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