Victoria & Zeta Five

Victoria loves the creative process, and it is joy for her to perform and create with other artists - listening to and co-creating on the fly, working with the unique expression of each individual, complimenting and harmonizing, soloing freestyle, and expressing feeling through tone, melody, rhythm and lyric, that's what she loves. The whole thang - it's all very healing for her and the little girl inside her - it brings out enthusiasm for life - its a gift - and it is so very beautiful ... free-flowing and spontaneous with the listeners, through their presence, engaging in part the process.

So, having a jam band that draws on blues, rock, rhythm and blues, and jazz fusion makes perfect sense due to the very nature and structure of these influences - it's "feeling" ? it's "free-flowing" ? it's "spontaneous" ? it's "electric".

Victoria is a native Texan from the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex - "Stevie Ray Vaughan" country - and she plays electric violin Texas gunslinger style - very high energy. So, as you may have already guessed, her unique signature and style has Stevie Ray and Hendrix influences. She also listens to other blues greats like Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Roy Buchanan, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, and she is a big fan of rhythm and blues/rock greats like Carlos Santana, Sade, Cassandra Wilson, and Janis Joplin. She is also attracted to the music of John Lennon - his "sensitivity" and "honesty" and "depth" of his writing, and his incredible imagination, as well as Hendrix's colorful concrete style of writing that raises consciousness, and the healing words and feeling that Stevie Ray conveyed through his music that inspired many; and their fearlessness to experiment and incorporate new sounds and musical elements throughout their careers. And the artist/writer and the scientist/engineer side of Victoria identifies with these attributes - having something to say through lyric, melody, rhythm, amplification, tone, effects, etc. (She is a degreed geophysicist who studied and worked professionally with microseismics and wave form propagation.)"

Prior to Nashville, Victoria performed with "The Brett Allen Jazz Trio" and with Edward T Hammill in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas. When she moved to Nashville in 1998, Victoria performed at the "Nashville Unity Festival", at "Bean Central" on the West End, at "Legends in Columbia", and at "The Nashville City Limits". With the band, she performed at "The Clarksville Riverfest", "Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar", "B.B. Kings Blues Club", "Bluesboro Rhythm & Blues Company, Inc., Nashville & Murfreesboro", "The Hard Rock Caf?", "Mercy Lounge", "Lipstick Lounge", "The 5 Spot", "The Boardwalk Cafe", and at "The Pond" and "Bunganut Pig" in Franklin". She also shared the stage with Shannon de Bayou, Don Kendrick, Patio Daddio, Brannon Lane, and Tom Larson (Delicious Blues Stew); James "Nick" Nixon (The Imperials), Mungo (Drummer for Bo Diddley), Waldo Weathers & The Mix (Sax player for James Brown & Charlie Pride), Steve Rossi (keyboardist for Peter Frampton), Dave McKenzie, and Miranda Louise, and Johnny Jones, to name a few.

Since relocating to the Austin area in 2007, Victoria has played in Fort Worth at "Stingray's Sports Cafe" and at "Key West"; in San Marcos at the "Cheatum Warehouse", "Cancun Rob's Fajita Hut", "Tantra Coffeehouse", and "Gold Crown Billiards"; in San Antonio at "Sam's Burger Joint", the "VFW", and "Make My Day"; in Austin at "Victory Grill", "Jovitas", "Momos", "Antone's", "Giddy Ups", "Sam's Town Point", "Nunos", "Hanovers", "Trophys Bar & Grill", and "The Ice House"; in Lakeway at "Carlos 'n Charlies" and "Detours Bar & Grill"; in Venture Point at "The Pier"; in Spicewood at "Poodies Hilltop Bar & Grill"; and has jammed with James Cotton (the one and only), Jackie Newhouse, Jimi Lee, J.J. Slyde, and many other notable Austin artists.

"She has been playing violin for 17+ years - 7 years of formal classical training, 2 years training of Texas Style Fiddling and 7+ years experience as a blues violinist with rock, rhythm and blues, and jazz influences."

Having grown up in an artistic environment, Victoria's background encompasses a rich supply of experience in the creative and performing arts. Her mother and father both taught art professionally and were actively involved in community theatre and oratorio and church choir. Her grandmother, who was well known professionally in classical circles for her days in vaudeville (the 20's), radio (the 30's), and opera and classical music (from the 40's - through the 80's); and her aunt, a gifted actress, who loved big band swing music of the 40's, were also early influences. So, in her early years, the music she played and performed drew heavy on classical, broadway, jazz, and folk.

Then when she moved back to the Fort Worth / Dallas Metroplex area in Texas, a whole new world of music opened up to her through meeting EDward T Hammill, who introduced her to artists, such as; Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, and other blues / rock greats that rocked her world.