■ Sista Monica brings incomparable voice to Vallejo theater showcase

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

The “Lioness of Blues” is coming to Vallejo.

Sista Monica Parker, nominated the last two years as Best Soul Blues Female Artist in the country by the Blues Foundation, will take a break from touring nationally and internationally to make a rare appearance at a local venue.
When she steps onto the stage at the Empress Theatre for Soulshine on March 13, Sista Monica .

“It will be up-tempo. My style is a mix of up-tempo Chicago style Blues with a Southern-style soul,” she told The Herald on Friday.

Parker, who has shared the stage with the Neville Brothers, Mavis Staples, Dr. John, Gladys Knight, Ray Charles, Taj Mahal, Al Green, Lil Milton, Etta James, Koko Taylor and many others over the past 20 years, has lived in the Bay Area since 1987.

She has released 11 CDs of music, the most recent titled “Living in the Danger Zone,” selections from which she will perform at Soulshine.

“A lot of people compare me to people like Mavis Staples, or Etta James,” Parker said. “I think that I have by now carved out my own identity, and I’d say that I’m close to more Koko Taylor, James Brown kind of mix.”

The way Parker carved out that identity was unique, like the singer herself.

She started singing gospel music in church when she was 7 years old. “I got a lot of encouragement to do that,” she said. “So I went with that. I followed my dream.”

Parker’s dream took a little detour when she entered the corporate world in 1980, working as a recruiter for such companies as Dolby, Yahoo and Apple.

Before long, the dream resurfaced. “One night I decided I’m going to pick up a microphone, and I started singing. Before you know it, I was discovered by the Monterey Bay Blues Festival, and started going to festivals.

“Then I started going to Europe,” Parker said. From there she made several appearances in Europe, beginning in Holland and the Netherlands, then in Italy, Spain, Belgium and Turkey. “It just didn’t stop!” she said. “That’s what made it happen.”

She doesn’t regret her time in corporate America because it “helped me pay for my record label,” she said. “It also helped me to decide which gigs to take instead of having to take all of them. I could be strategic in planning what dates I was going to take.

“In 1992, I decided I could do Sista Monica on the weekends and still have my day job … because my mom always said ‘don’t quit your day job!’ Then it got to the point where the day job got to be too much, and I started focusing on recording and touring, and doing my passion — which is to sing straight to the hearts of the people!”

If You Go
Sista Monica will be the special guest for Soulshine at the Empress Theatre on March 13. For tickets or information, call 707-552-2400 or visit empresstheatre.org.