Singer/songwriter, Janet Lenore, has been performing regularly throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area for several years. She wrote her first songs soon after she learned to play guitar at 12. She began her
performance career with her mother as a duo called "Rosenthorn" at around age 15. You can listen to online song samples from her
first CD, "Ladies of My Family"at CD Baby. Janet is in the studio, slowly working on new recordings with Topher Gayle . Some of those more recent recorded efforts and some live performance recordings can be heard on
Janet's MySpace page. And there's a Fan Page on Facebook too.
The thing that Janet loves most about music is playing music and sharing the stage with other people. Recently, she's been developing her skills with swing guitar, exploring fingerstyle ukulele, and is making progress with clawhammer banjo.
Janet has found that one the best ways she's found to meet musicians for collaboration and gain new skills is attending Summer Music Camp for adults, the California Coast Music Camp (CCMC) . CCMC has had so much positive impact on her life that Janet has "given back"
to the music community by helping to direct this non-profit organization as a Board Member. August 2010 will be the 8th or 9th year that Janet and Jeff have "put on a show" at the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts Webster Street Stage.
She's putting together a webpage that will describe the current and past performers on that small but important local stage. Some of Janet's recent musical collaborations and band projects include:
One More Dollar"
with Topher Gayle (guitar/mandolin/vocals), "Dobro John" Bidwell (dobro/vocals), and and bassist Jeff Davis.. In 2009-2010,
this band played the 2009 Palo Alto Festival of the Arts and a couple of gigs at one of our favorite haunts,
Mission Pizza.
Once in awhile, Janet dusts off her electric guitar and she and Jeff hook up for some serious rock and roll. For lack of a better name, we've called it the "Janet Lenore Band" or sometimes drummer
Rich Dorffi will come up with a more creative name. Our local home for blues and rock sounds is downtown watering hole
The Bistro, which actually gives the center of Hayward, CA a lovely "there" there.
If he's not touring or otherwise booked, we'll get Topher Gayle to play lead electric guitar -
and Toph really enjoys the opportunity to rock out once in awhile. Other lead players we've shared the stage with include Ed McCormick and Barry Lloyd. Besides Rich, we've had the good fortune of getting to play with some other fine drummers.
For a long time Sid Sanchez was the band's regular drummer. We've had great gigs with Kenny Gross, Jesse DaSilva, and Art Sanchez on skins. In 2009, Janet wore her "rock and roll diva hat"
for a fundraiser extravaganza for San Francisco's Presidio Hill School, thanks to our sponsor and bandmate for the gig, Amy Sparrow.
For several years, Janet enjoyed singing with Amy Friedricks in a band called "All About Me." Complex vocal arrangements and close harmonies distinguished the duo. Amy usually took the guitar role while Janet
played mandolin and sometimes guitar or a little dobro. Topher and Jeff joined them to create a bigger sound. This band rarely plays together these days, but in 2009
enjoyed wonderful gigs at the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts
and Cassidy House Concerts.
For awhile, Janet played Irish music with fiddler/singer Sharon Carl and they called themselves "Royan"- sometimes performing a trio. Although Royan performs rarely due to geographical
distances, the extended Royan group made a video up in honor of our friend Anne's Big Birthday and put it up on YouTube. If its you're birthday and you're feeling
a tad bit sorry for yourself, a dose of "Happy Crappy Birthday" is just the ticket. Nowadays, Sharon and her husband Jaya
are deeply involved in growing the musical community in Auburn, CA, producing a concert series of their own, Auburn House Concerts.