Cinder Jean
Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist/Educator/Composer/Producer
About Cinder:
My family moved to Santa Barbara in the late 1960s from Manhattan Beach California. I began my music career in Santa Barbara. I started playing the guitar at the age of ten and thus the passion for song writing emerged. I began playing local coffee houses and venues in the Santa Barbara area around age fifteen.
I held a steady gig for five years in Ventura playing several nights a week in the crows nest lounge at the Holiday Inn Beach Resort. There I had the opportunity to become a part of a classic concert series where I opened for many artists such as: Dave Mason, AL Stewart, Donavon, Don McLean, Ronnie Milsap, Kris Kristofferson and many more. During this time I met an artist named Robert Brown. He was a pianist who at the time played in the Los Angeles area. We formed a duet together to open for a Ronnie Milsap concert it went well so we continued on. We eventually based ourselves in New Mexico and then toured for eleven years playing resort hotels night clubs and private parties.
Nightshades toured many places including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, New Mexico, Alaska and Japan. As time wore on, we played less on the road and Nightshades then ended. But at the end of all things lies a new beginning, we left the road behind to find new horizons.
I returned home to Santa Barbara in 2000 to find my roots in folk music and continue taking college classes working towards my AA in music. I released my CD Strands Of Time in 2005.
I have also worked for a number of years teaching private music lessons specializing in teaching guitar, theory, and voice improvisation. I have worked as a guitarist, vocalist, composer, arranger, and educator. As a musician I have been called upon to play a variety of musical styles including originals, rock, blues, country, folk and Jazz.
I have also been performing for several years in Santa Barbara in an acoustic duo with blues guitarist Robert Thomas. Robert Thomas and I play Hawaiian-slack key guitar together and have been writing, recording and composing in this genre. Although we both come from different musical back grounds, I myself coming from contemporary folk roots and Robert coming from Texas blues roots, The two of us have merged our musical styles together to create a harmonic convergence of folk, blues, country and hawaiian slack-key that is truly unique to the listener.