Bio

The Wendy Woo Trio is apart of the huge pop sound emerging from the Denver music scene. Keep an eye out for the new single release “Out of My Head Over You” and the new CD by the same title to be released in February 2007.


photo: Andee Smits

The Wendy Woo Trio

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. I had some musical exposure as a child, but mostly I had heavy artistic exposure from the poetry and art scene that was happening in Boulder at the time. I picked up my first guitar at the age of 18 when I started learning a few chords. I started putting together some original songs and slowly learning the art of the guitar. I started working at the Fox Theatre in Boulder when it first opened in 1993. This gave me an opportunity to hear great up and coming music and to socialize and network with other musicians. This gave me my first experience of organizing bands and putting together nights of music. I had great opportunities like opening for Sheryl Crow and headlining my own evenings of music backed by Colorado?s top musicians like Brian Nevin from Big Head Todd and the Monsters. While learning how to play on stage and learning how to take songs and bring them to full band situations, I also spent time with Ambrosia Healey, Fox Theatre publicist and daughter of Dean Healy, sound engineer for the Grateful Dead. Ambrosia spent time showing me how to publicize my individual shows, how to approach the press and how to book and promote my concerts. Over the years at the Fox Theatre I played with great Colorado musicians, had the opportunity to produce a CD for friend Sally Taylor, daughter or James Taylor as well as produce 6 titles for myself. In 2000, I left the Fox Theatre to pursue music full time and to reside in Denver, the city only 25 miles away from the town I grew up in. It was close to home, but very different in musical style and approach. I went from being a ?different band every night band? to finding other musicians in the area with similar dreams and goals to make up the band that I am promoting now, the Wendy Woo Trio.

I met Chris Maestas one afternoon working at Rupp?s Drums in Denver. At the time he was playing with an original band in Denver called Mean Old Man and running a custom drum company called the Darby Drum Company. Facing transitions with Mean Old Man, Chris was looking for a new group that was more focused on playing out and writing as a group.

As much as I had enjoyed playing with different musicians over the years, I was missing the elements of playing with a band. Chris was one of the first musicians I had found that was interested in being in a band and sharing the joys and the burdens of songwriting, arranging, song formatting, sound engineering, booking, and promoting. For the first time in my musical career I had another mind to bounce ideas off of and create new ones. In the few years that I have played with Chris we have booked and performed close to 200 shows a year, we have co-written a full album of material, and we have co-produced this new CD. On top of our business successes, we have recently been married and are expecting a baby in April.

Chris grew up in the small town of Espanola, New Mexico. Chris?s parents owned and operated a small music store and a floral shop. Busy with their businesses, Chris often found himself coming home from school and playing drums for hours on end. When Chris wasn?t playing drums, he spent time reading every drummer?s and musicians magazine he could get a hold of. After self-studying music during his teen age years, Chris moved to Denver in the early 90?s to help revive Larimer Square with his cousin Randy Rutherford. Randy Rutherford was founder and owner of Larimer Group, one of Denver?s major businesses in the downtown area including Josephina?s, Champion Brewing Company, Mexicali, and Tommy Tsunami?s. Chris worked downtown for years and was apart of the growth of Larimer Square and what is now known as Lodo.

After years of working downtown Chris decided to get out of the corporate downtown rat race and start to find music again. He started Darby Drum Company and began making custom drum kits and snare?s for Denver?s best drummers including Ben Wysocki from Denver?s major hit band ?The Fray?, Brian Nevin from Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Daren Hahn with Ani DeFranco and many other of Denver?s greatest Drummers. Darby Drum company has become known as the internet drum shop The Mile High Drum Factory.

Our next step was finding a bass player with a similar vision to match the band. We asked around and started auditioning players. The first person we auditioned was a keyboard player from Denver based band ?Ten Tiers?, Mitch DeZwarte. Also a bass player, guitar player, and sound engineer, we were thrilled to have found a proficient musician whose personality we loved just as much.

Mitch grew up in the small town of Fondalac, WI. He was the son of a Wisconsin cheese maker and spent his days growing up playing piano, bass, guitar and every other instrument he could find. In his early 20?s he found himself working in a cheese factory. He recalls carrying a huge vat of cheese across the warehouse and having a little old man doing the same job look at him and say, ?son, what are you doing here?? The very next day Mitch moved to Denver and enrolled in music school at CU Denver. He brought his high school sweetheart to Denver and married her. Mitch is now playing bass and keyboards for the The Wendy Woo Trio. He is a proficient songwriter and has included one of his original songs in the new release called ?Gone?. Mitch assisted in the production and engineering of the new album.

written by Wendy Woo 12/27/06

Wendy Woo
accolades and other information about the artist

Though born in New York City, Wendy Woo grew up in Colorado. Her energetic personality, musical skills, and spirited songwriting have made her a media and fan favorite.

Multicultural in both heritage and outlook, Woo displays a blend of soul, vibrancy, and wild child attitude. A passionate live performer who connects instantly with her audiences, she has been playing to sold out venues every week and attracting national music industry attention.

Whether playing by herself or with her band, she draws you in and holds you there. Her voice is simultaneously intimate and assured. Her songs are wide-ranging in style but always pure in emotion: from down and dirty blues to defiant ex-lover funks to summer day sambas to wistful ballads. Her guitar-playing includes fretwork riffs so unusual they always generate cheers.

Her talent has not gone unnoticed. She performed a two-hour concert broadcast nationally on Altitude Sports and Entertainment Network. Her music has been featured in Uncommon Goals, a 1999 Discovery Channel documentary about the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s soccer team; Mountain of Dreams, a 2003 documentary about Mt. Everest; and the Food Network’s “FoodNation with Bobby Flay.” She also sings the theme song for “Good Day Colorado,” the weekday morning show on Denver’s Fox affiliate. And she is part of national sports retailer Title Nine’s Emerging Women Artist series.

In addition, she has won numerous accolades including:

She was part of the 1999 Lilith Fair in Denver, sharing the stage with Sarah McLachlan and The Indigo Girls. She has opened for Sheryl Crow, India.Arie, Counting Crows, Shawn Colvin, 38 Special, Dave Mason, Stanley Jordan, Eric Johnson, Karla Bonoff, The Crash Test Dummies, Sonia Dada, Sean Mullins, Sophie B. Hawkins, and Loudon Wainwright III. and other national acts.

Woo’s parents, Jane, an artist, and Bataan, a poet, were founding faculty members of Boulder’s legendary Naropa Institute. The Faigao home was a gathering spot for such literary icons as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Merry Prankster Ken Kesey, and 1960s chronicler Norman Mailer. Local music critics have lauded her as a significant member of Boulder’s “organic” music scene.

Her musical experience includes studying classical guitar and music theory in college; working at Boulder’s most famous music venue, the Fox Theater; organizing the Women from Mars (an on-going music festival); and serving as a producer for multiple projects including CDs for herself and Sally Taylor, daughter of Carly Simon and James Taylor.

Woo has released six CDs, displaying a wide variety of styles. Angels in the Crowd (1997) is a collection of mellow jazz and folk-inspired ballads. Wide Awake and Dreaming (1999) is a full band production with funk and jazz rhythms. Ecolalia (2000) features Woo’s songs and acoustic guitar interwoven with her father’s poetry. Gonna Wear Red (2002) is a tightly produced series of rock tunes with touches of funk, blues, and folk. Walking the Skyline (2004) has songs in three genres: intimate solo acoustic; expansive upbeat pop/folk; and full band funk. Angels Laughing (2005) is a live solo acoustic album.

Although the Woo Band has incorporated a number of drummers over the years, Chris Maestas, who joined the band in 2002, has brought a new dynamic through his understated but well-defined percussion. Growing up listening to the Beatles and all the derivatives since, he has an appreciation for strong melodies and clean pop rhythms, which makes him a perfect fit for the Woo Band.

He has played in many bands over the years, including a current side project known as “Mean Old Man”. In addition, as the son of a music store owner in a tiny New Mexico town, Chris began taking apart and restoring vintage drum kits and designing his own. Not only did he develop a system to produce high quality sounds across all kit configurations, he has perfected the art of building the virtually indestructible drum. To produce and sell his custom kits, he founded and is president of Denver-based Darby Drum Company. Among the many people who now play Darby Drums are:

Brian Nevin (Big Head Todd)
Daren Hahn (Eels, Ani DiFranco)
Scott Davies (Opie Gone Bad)
Chris Maestas (Wendy Woo)
Jimmy Blair (D.O.R.K.)
Zach Pietlock (Judge Roughneck)

Mitch DeZwarte has an extensive history with music which began when he was five. While growing up in the Midwest, Mitch began playing recitals and performing at a very young age. Through the years Mitch has become a well rounded musician performing in acts ranging from Jazz to Heavy Metal. Mitch is also a songwriter and composer and has performed in many solo acoustic shows of his own. Much of the past five years Mitch has been playing bass for numerous acts around Denver. Mitch spent a better part of two years playing bass for Aubrey Collins, getting the chance to play for Sony, Epic, and Capitol Records. He has been blessed with the chance to play alongside many nationally acclaimed studio musicians and songwriters from the West coast to the East coast. Mitch is now playing keyboards and singing background for Ten Tiers and the WooCrew.

Written by Suzane Lainson
Photos by Melanie Stephens and Mark Stout

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