By George O'Brien
Last Wednesday I had a chance to review an "Irish-pop" group that recently relocated to the valley that goes by the name of "CJA". This mother-daughters act is certain to attract quite a bit of attention.
CJA comes for the first letters of the names of the three women performers of the Delgado family - Christine, Joanne and Amber. The mother, Joanne, came to US from New Zealand (her grandparents went there from Ireland) and has been performing as a vocalist and keyboard artist since the early 80's. A few years ago, she teamed up with her two classically trained daughters, Christine and Amber to form a group they called "Wildwood" before changing the name to CJA. They were located in the Sierra foothills town of Grass Valley and played all over northern California.
CJA combines a light, bouncy pop sound vocals with a variety of Irish/Celtic instrumental pieces with both Christine and Amber playing fiddles and Joanne on keyboard. Most of the material is original and Joanne has real talent as a song writer.
Most of their pieces are up tempo but Joanne does a fine job on the slower ballad style pieces. Amber and Joanne share the lead on the pop vocals. A recent addition to their group is the youngest daughter - 11 year old Krystle who joined them on the cello for several pieces.
The promotional piece the band distributed quotes their fans with terms like:"Professional", "Smooth without being slick", "Genuine", "Unspoiled", Captivating", and "Sexy." I cannot disagree. They have a very polished presentation.
And yes, "sexy" is pretty good description. I hope this does not come across as sounding sexist, but the three women in CJA are drop dead gorgeous. Their outfits of skin tight black squints tops, leather pants, and over the thigh boots do tend to reinforce this image, (you can check their photo on their web site at www.jps.net/nrthilnd), but they do not let this interfere with their emphasis on the music.
Since CJA is new to Arizona, they have just begun looking for gigs. The best way to reach them is through the internet at cja@onemain.com
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