Candye Kane has been called a survivor, a superhero and the toughest girl alive. (All are also titles of her self-penned songs.) They are apt descriptions of the jump blues singer, songwriter and mother of two from East Los Angeles who has earned this moniker the hard way. Nominated for seven National Blues Foundation Awards http://www.blues.org/ (Best Contemporary Blues Female 2014) winner of ten San Diego Music Awards, starring in a sold out stage play about her life and beating down pancreatic cancer in the last two years,
Kane is one tough cookie. She has performed worldwide for presidents and movie stars but her path to success was not always glamorous or easy.
Raised in a dysfunctional, blue-collar family, Candye became a teenage mother, a pin up cover girl and a punk rock, hillbilly and blues-belting anarchist by the time she was just 21 years old. 13 cds, six record labels, millions of international road miles and countless awards later, Miss Kane has proven to be a true survivor as she scrambled her way to the top of the roots music heap, creating a world renowned reputation that has spanned two decades.
A colorful mixture of the traditional and the eclectic, Kane cut her musical teeth in the early 80’s onstage with Hollywood musicians and friends, Social Distortion, Dwight Yoakum, Dave Alvin, The Blasters, X, Fear and Los Lobos, to name just a few. While raising two sons, this role model for the disenfranchised, championed large sized women, fought for the equal rights of sex workers and the GLBT community and inspired music lovers everywhere. Her fans are a mixture of true outsiders: bikers, blues fans, punk rockers, drag queens, fat girls, queers, burlesque dancers, porn fans, sex workers, rockabilly and swing dancers, grey haired hippies, sex positive feminists and everyday folk of all ages, flock to see Candye and hear her musical messages of love, hope and empowerment.
Her full time, 250 days a year touring schedule started in 1992 and today, Kanes’ live shows are the stuff of legend. She honors the bold blues women of the past with both feet firmly planted in the present. She belts – growls – shouts – croons and moans from a lifetime of suffering and overcoming obstacles. She uses music as therapy and often writes and chooses material with positive affirmations that leave the audience feeling healed and exhilarated. A show that is part humor, revival meeting and sexuality celebration, she’ll deliver a barrelhouse-tongue-in-cheek blues tune or a gospel ballad like Jesus and Mohammed, encouraging audiences to leave behind religious intolerance. She’ll slay the crowd with her balls out rendition of Whole Lotta Love or glorify the virtues of zaftig women with 200 pounds of fun. She often says she is a “fat black drag queen trapped in a white woman’s body” and she dresses the part. Bedecked in bright colored feathers, sequins and rhinestones, Kane’s performance is Mississippi by way of Las Vegas with a quick stopover in San Francisco.
Kane’s thirteenth CD release, Coming Out Swingin’ hit the streets on June 25, 2013 for the Sister Cynic Label. Produced by Candye and her amazing guitarist Laura Chavez, Coming out Swingin’ is their third collaboration. Superhero was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues CD of the year and critics are saying thay “Coming Out Swingin’ eclipses Kanes other releases by far”. Audiences love seeing two curvy gals onstage together and Candye and Laura deliver the goods. With scorching, yet understated guitar work and empowering, healing and sometimes funny lyrics, Kane and Chavez are the feminist fireballs of the future.
Candye has been included in countless Blues and Jazz Anthologies including the Rolling Stone and Musichounds Guide to Jazz and Blues and Dan Akroyds’ 30 Essential Women of the Blues. In addition to her music successes, she is an activist and philanthropist. In August 2009, she appeared in Dublin, Ireland for the World Congress for Downs Syndrome with her United by Music charity http://www.unitedbymusic.euThis/ project provides performance opportunities, blues history lessons and songwriting instruction to young people with disabilities, encouraging them to write their own blues songs to help them overcome their daily challenges.
A fighter par excellence, Candye’s authenticity, determination and optimism keep her shows passionate, honest and irresistible. One evening with Candye will keep the crowds happy, hopeful and coming back for more!
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