Bio

Studio Musician

Current Projects

Recordings

Radio Shows

Neal Gladstone Channel

Audrey Perkins' Music Profile

Audrey is best known for her 31-year musical partnership with songwriter and performer Neal Gladstone and for their four-year run on OPB with the Neal Gladstone and Company Radio Show, in collaboration with public radio's Fred Child.

Experience:

Performer as lead singer and back-up singer.

Recording artist on over a dozen albums.

Radio producer and artist – voice work as characters, host, narrator, editor; producer.

Concert and event producer.

Marketer.

 

Favorite Venues Where I’ve Performed:

Britt Festival, Jacksonville, Oregon

Cycle Corvallis, Corvallis, Oregon

Bumbershoot, Seattle, Washington

NW Folklife Festival, Seattle, Washington

Sandy Bradley’s Potluck, Seattle, Washington

Roseburg Concert Series, Roseburg, Oregon

Medford Concert Series, Medford, Oregon

Tyee Winery, Corvallis, Oregon

Majestic Theater, Corvallis, Oregon

 

Featured with Neal Gladstone on:

Car Talk, National Public Radio

Morning Edition, National Public Radio

Sandy Bradley’s Potluck, KUOW, Seattle

KLCC, Eugene

OPB, Oregon Statewide

Recording Artist with Neal Gladstone for Kaleidoscope Records

Oregon On Tour Artist with Neal Gladstone for Oregon Arts Commission

 

Songwriters I Love:

Neal Gladstone (of course!), Kris Delmhorst, Elton John, Bruce Cockburn, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Jane Siberry, Karen Savoca, Dave Plaehn, Creighton Lindsay, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Carol King, Jonatha Brooks, Cat Stevens, Norah Jones, Shawn Colvin, Eva Cassidy.

 

Singing Influences:

• Tony Bennett – From Tony I continue to learn about an impeccable sense of time. He’s so laid back. Listen to how he waits to come in – so relaxed. I’m also inspired by the way he fully inhabits a song, something I also aspire and love to do. He’s relaxed, humble, and fully committed when he sings, devoting his entire being to the song he is in. He doesn’t run around the stage, doesn’t ‘try’ to perform. He just stands there in his suit and tie and kills it!
   

• Ella Fitzgerald – I love everything about Ella. She, too, has a great sense of time. I love how she sculpts words with pronunciation, softening syllables sometimes, and making them have harder, sharper edges at other times. I love how she messes around with phrasing and melody. Her scat singing is mostly using the words themselves rather than making up sounds. She’s very playful!  And she has a great sense of when not to overdo anything. She is both true to the melody of a song and yet playful with it as well – a hard balance to strike.
   

• Linda Rondstadt – When I discovered her album Lush Life, which she made with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, I realized what a great singer she is.  She can sing anything! This album is a masterpiece of lushness, as its title cut implies.  She is also amazing at sculpting her words and phrases. Each word, each syllable is a choice to be made, and I can tell that she remained sensitive to how each one wants to be shaped. She also taught me about a beautiful sense of legato, which is how we connect notes.  She’s so smooth.  And she includes each passage along the way on a run, each note, as something to deliver beautifully. Linda Rondstadt also has a great sense of dynamics – when to lay into something full blast, and when to pull back. I also love her choices of vibrato – when to put in no vibrato at all, and when and how to add vibrato.