Raison D'Etre
Violet Rae Downey, Vickie Ellis, and Roberta Schultz are three women who live to sing together. Described by one critic as “divinely stirring,” their singing seems to define Raison D’Etre. According to Mike Breen of Cincinnati CityBeat, this folk trio offers “some of the finest three-part harmony singing you’ll likely ever hear.” However, when these women invite you around their hearth of heart, it's for the purpose of sharing life’s journey through songs about love, loss, and redemption. Sometimes they even find redemption by "googling themselves" or by assuring us all that bad days are caused when "mercury is retrograde again." These women view the "tallside" of life with a top-of-the-world perspective and a healthy dose of humor. Even their carefully selected covers from Mark Weierman, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Jesse Winchester welcome the audience into a world where dogs are "twice the human being that you are," a drunken cafe-dweller plots her metamorphosis, space ships save the environment, and a woman decides it's OK to be "an old gray grandma as long as you'll be my gray grandpa." Traditional folk songs, a capella swing tunes, and Shaker hymns round out their versatile repertoire, all delivered in their pure Kentucky blend.
Juried into Kentucky Arts Council's PERFORMING ARTS DIRECTORY, the trio takes the stage at key venues from east to west in their home state including RICHMOND AREA ARTS COUNCIL in the east, SINGLETARY CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Lexington and GLEMA MAHR CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Madisonville.
Outside of Kentucky, this folk trio appears at arts venues and festivals from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
From 2000-2006, Raison D'Etre hosted the popular COFFEE CUP CONCERT SERIES in Northern Kentucky's Behringer-Crawford Museum, Covington. While showcasing the diverse blend of folk, acoustic, jazz and singer songwriter musical heritage of the Ohio Valley Region, the series has also featured such national headliners as folk performance artist, Christine Lavin and Grammy winner, Bill Miller.
Raison D'Etre has 5 recordings available on iTunes and CD Baby. Go to the BUY page on this website to browse or purchase, or open the LISTEN page to hear clips.
"Live@Java5" is Raison D'Etre's two-hour concert on DVD produced by the wonderful folks at Mudbrick Media. Check out their world-class facilities by going to our LINKS page.
Vickie Ellis - keys,banjo, banjuke, percussion,vocals
Vickie combines classical piano training, a passion for folk instruments (banjo and banjuke) and her background in radio and theater to add spice and nuance to arrangements and homey chat to performances. Her story-telling spills over into songs like "Another Train," about her aunt's home place in Wayland, KY where coal companies "sliced up the hillside" and fouled the drinking water.
Vickie's songs "Batten Down the Hatches" and "Another Train" speak for the voiceless and powerless in our society. "Batten Down the Hatches" received an Honor Award from the MOVA competition while "Another Train" was recently recognized for Honors by the 2008 West Coast Songwriters Competition and has been selected for airplay at Women of Substance Radio.
Vickie's constant key-switching on her banjo has led the trio to learn several banjo jokes of the very corny variety. If you come up with a good one, please send it to the trio.
Swing Canary Alias: Vickie Lynn
Favorite color: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say yellow.
Violet Rae Downey - guitar, vocals, percussion
A background in musical theater drives Violet's dramatic sense of song and fuels her incredible range as her percussive guitar pounds out the heart beat for the trio.
Violet's songs, "Legacy" and "I've Got the Heart" continue to gather awards from songwriting festivals and critics alike. Her "ultra-Violet" vocals are the highlight of every Raison D'Etre concert.
MOVA Songwriting Festival 1st Prize for Humorous/Children's Songs--"Legacy(I Googled Myself)," 2007
Judges Choice Award, MOVA, 2005 for "I've Got the Heart."
Honor Award from 2008 West Coast Songwriter's Competition for "Legacy."
Swing Canary identity: Violet Rae
Favorite color: purple(duh, Violet!)
Roberta Schultz - guitar, vocals, percussion,6-string mando,bass
Roberta’s finger-picking guitar styles, soulful song writing and Native drums(including a few that she made) craft Raison D’Etre’s Americana feel. She owes her ear for lyrics to all those years "holed up" with great literature as an English major and her sense of humor to the thousands of sophomore boys who graced her classroom.
Favorite quote: "So, why do I need to read Shakespeare? I'm gonna be a carpenter. I don't think you'll ever hear me say, 'oh, thou beautiful piece of wood.'"
Roberta's songs have ranked as Judges Choice and finalists in the MOVA Competition("Broken Radio," "This Kind of Rain," respectively.) "This Kind of Rain" earned third place in the Folk/Bluegrass category as a song fragment. Who knows what it could've done had she finished it?
Roberta's songs appear on "Isn't it a Wonder," (children's CD, 2008, The Ceilidh Group,) SouthernArtistry.org's first compilation distributed at Performing Arts Exchange, 2006, and the Tri-State Womenfest Compilation, 2007.
"Be True" won an Honor Award from the Great American Song contest, 2006 while "Broken Radio" has been selected for airplay by Women of Substance Radio. Roberta was awarded a 2006 Artist Enrichment Grant for Songwriting by Kentucky Foundation for Women to write songs about how women and girls face aging in our society.
In her spare time, Roberta handles all bookings for Raison D'Etre, sometimes tours with Mountain Women Rising, a social justice performance troupe of the Appalachian Women's Alliance, and is an Arts in Education Roster Artist for the state of Kentucky, bringing song writing and music elements into Kentucky classrooms.
Swing Canary Alias: Bertie Lou
Favorite color: red