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November 17, 2009 - US & Canada Booking: Graphic Equlizer Productions : Aaron M. Koper graphicequlizerproductions@gmail.com www.myspace.com/graphicequlizerproductions 00+1(248)910-3564
January 30, 2009 - Sista Otis Featured in New Orleans Top Entertainment Magazine
This full page article and picture in Where Y'at New Orleans Premier Entertainment Magazine hit the stands today, It's the Mardi Gras Issue which has the largest readership of the year, a big honor for any artist(right on sista). The link below will take you to view the online version or just keep reading or pick one up if your lucky enough to live in New Orleans or give into the call of the wild and come join us for Mardi Gras, we got some beads for you sweetheart....
*****PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS****** on the SISTA OTIS MYSPACE and listen to the new songs, we need as much support and love that you can send. Contracts have been signed with a new National Booker and we are booking a 41 date South West and West Coast Tour for May/June and a Midwest Summer Festival tour.
http://www.myspace.com/sistaotisandthewhollyrollers
SPECIAL THANKS: Carolyn Heneghan, Dr. "YEAH YOU RIGHT" Floyd and Rookery Studios, Becca Fishman, Caleb Kent, Dan The Man NooMoon and our, "On It Like Nobodies Business" Booker Kim Paris.
U.S. Booker
Sinister Foxy Productions
www.myspace.com/sinisterfoxy
248.747.2829
We are feelin' fine in 09 WOO, YES, CHANGE!!!!
LINK TO WHERE Y'AT:
http://www.whereyat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=815
OR JUST READ THE ARTICLE:
One to Watch: Sista Otis
By Carolyn Heneghan
A punchy instrumental breakdown bounces off the dimly lit walls of Café Negril this Friday evening. Otis looks up from the light brown Guild electric acoustic guitar held snugly to her chest by a bright red strap and flashes a wide, gracious smile at the crowd. She's wearing her favorite color scheme, black and red: black Adidas jacket, black dress over blue jeans, black socks, and Adidas sneakers. Her most striking feature is her hair—to-the-waist dreadlock pigtails, black with a few locks dyed red, complementing the red strap that peeks from her evening's ensemble.
Otis' simple but catchy melodies are keeping the crowd either dancing on their feet or grooving in their barstools. More curious bystanders, once peering in the large glass window from the bustle of Frenchmen sidewalks, now fill in haphazardly to get a listen. Her solo in "Take All of Me" has drawn these people in from the cold tonight, as her voice laces thick, sultry purrs with sweet, airy coos and rhythmic bouts of scatting—a dexterous vocal repertoire that is inviting to passers-by.
"I'd like to propose a toast," Otis says to her audience, raising her gin and tonic with lime. "A toast that has been in my family and passed down for generations—all my Norwegian, Polish, Scot-Irish, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Asian, African, Native American, South American, North American, Eskimo, gypsy, Jewish ancestors always said… 'Let the good times roll, motherf*ers!'"
This magnetic folk rock singer-songwriter Shawn "Sista Otis" Tinnes brought her music and onstage magic to New Orleans three years ago and now hosts two Frenchmen St. weeklies. She earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Detroit Music Awards, has been on the cover of numerous Detroit entertainment magazines, recently performed on the Noomoon Stage at the 2008 Voodoo Music Fest, and is currently recording a new album. A self-proclaimed "Good Time Girl," Otis infuses a unique sense of spirit into her uplifting and socially conscious lyrics.
Born to a musical family in Detroit, Otis recognized a good time at a young age. As one of the first children in her parents' group of friends, Otis mingled with adults at parties and get-togethers early on, and her father's band practices regularly filled the backyard with rock and roll, dancing, and "all around good times." This atmosphere in childhood instilled her passions for music and performance at an early age. She soon developed a fervent love for reading and writing as well, which eventually sparked her fierce dedication to writing music and poetry.
"Growing up with my dad rehearsing in the band," Otis says, "I'd play the tambourine and do backup vocals. He'd write little songs, and I'd see him workin' on 'em. I just thought that's what people did. So I just started doin' it."
From age 19 to 25, Otis traveled across the U.S., what she describes as "hoboin' all over the country playin' street music." By playing this street music, selling her CDs, and playing open mic nights in clubs and coffeehouses, she was able to get herself around quite well on little money.
"I figured if you're gonna be a writer, then you gotta go out and experience life, and you experience by doing," Otis explains. "I always had an attraction to the underbelly of life, so I went out and hit the streets and started playin' and travelin'"
In a series of many different adventures and misadventures—her "guerilla tours"—Otis made her way to places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Austin by way of varied modes of transportation. "Sometimes I was in my car, sometimes I traveled in this friend of mine's big school bus, and I've taken more Greyhound buses than I care to mention."
After many years touring and traveling from Detroit to the rest of the U.S., Otis decided to settle in the one city that reciprocated her spirit enough to make it her "main lily pad"—New Orleans. After a couple of brief visits the summer before and then seven months after Hurricane Katrina, she knew that this quirky southern town would be her new home.
She took her music to coffee houses and bars, most notably Uptown's Neutral Ground, before establishing herself on Frenchmen St. Starting out by playing in between other musicians' sets, Otis soon got the attentions of the Spotted Cat, the Apple Barrel, and Café Negril. She now plays two weeklies: Apple Barrel on Wednesdays from 8-10 and Café Negril on Fridays from 8-10.
"It's been a long road gettin' here, but it sure feels good, don't it?" she says with a big, toothy grin to her Café Negril crowd. They holler and raise their glasses in response, a hallmark of her stage performance. She often rallies her audiences into boisterous call-and-response—most often "Whoo!" "Yes!" and "Amen!"—whoops and cheers in a gospel choir fashion.
A true entertainer, Otis makes the audience an active and vital part of her stage show. In between songs, she repeatedly strums one chord and shares bits of bohemian philosophy, political commentary, and witty sentiments to keep her crowd howling and laughing. She values above all the audience and other musicians all having "an intellectual interest in each other, like maybe we're keys to each other's development." It's safe to say that the buzz felt after Otis' shows is from more than the alcohol or feedback; she is an avid supporter of self-love, self-discovery and, of course, good times—an attitude present in every set.
Otis' revolving band is another striking feature of her live shows. She can be seen with a variety of back-up players, including drummers, guitarists, bassists, and harmonica players. "Everyone's busy these days," she says. "I really want to put an act together with seriously-minded people that really believe in the project, and I'm okay to wait for that."
While she waits for a permanent band, Otis has kept busy. This past Voodoo Fest, a crowd of about a hundred gathered to support and enjoy Otis's Noomoon Stage performance in the pleasant late-October afternoon weather. Recently, reporters from the BBC taped one of her Apple Barrel shows for a "Musicians Around the World" special that will run in Europe. The next week, talent scouts from Nashville, who work with Willie Nelson and Widespread Panic, dropped in on one of her Café Negril shows, and she is currently negotiating a contract with a national booking agency. Otis is also finishing an album, Charmed, of 12 recorded songs, but hasn't set any deadline for its release.
With her music career on the rise, New Orleans should be seeing more from Sista Otis in the near future. As Otis reminds her weekly crowds, whenever you're feeling down or in need of some fun and excitement, "Remember! Rock and roll has never hurt you! Rock and roll has never lied to you! For a good time, call Sista Otis at 1-800-Yea-You-Right!"
By Carolyn Heneghan
PLEASE LEAVE ALL COMMENTS ON THE SISTA OTIS MYSPACE PAGE AND IF YOU CANT LEAVE A MESSAGE LISTEN TO THE SONGS SISTA OTIS WROTE FOR YOU. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
http://www.myspace.com/sistaotisandthewhollyrollers
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