The Music of
Amanda Webb
~ story and photos by Bob Gustin
Amanda Webb is a classically trained vocalist who studied at two prestigious institutions, the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and the Indiana University School of Music.
But in those the academic settings, she soon realized she was a rogue performer in classical circles because she yearned to have her audience involved in her music, not just hearing it from afar.
So instead of pursuing a career in the opera, she let life take its course.
She met and married Brian Webb, another IU music student who was unsure of how to use his classical vocal and violin training. A series of non-musical jobs followed for both, along with a family of five boys.
In the years that followed, she gave singing lessons, sang contemporary Christian music in local churches, and performed at weddings and parties.
16 Our Brown County March / April 2016
Now, she’ s ready to sing the blues. The Amanda Webb Band has been performing for about a year in different incarnations. It features Brian on guitar and violin, Amanda on keyboards, and both on vocals. They have played at Chateau Thomas Winery, Big Woods, the Brown County Playhouse, and Brown County Inn, all in Nashville. They play blues standards, rock and roll, and, in her words,“ whatever makes the party fun.”
Other area gigs are lined up, and with Bloomington-based pianist John Urban, she will use a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission to put on two concerts at the Brown County State Park. The first will be May 5, part of a hike and naturalist tour primarily for home-schooled kids. The other will be October 27 for Brown County High School band and choir students. Both are open to the public.
Amanda grew up in the Washington, D. C. area. She attended a private Christian high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where formal classical music was emphasized and“ pop ideas were guilty pleasures but the true ambition had to be in classical music,” she said.
But she always wanted to be a pop singer, watching Soul Train and American Bandstand, and dreamed of becoming the next Madonna, Annie Lennox, or Tori Amos. She learned keyboards in order to accompany herself and make her more valuable in a band setting.