In 2009, Jeanne Rettos Logan released her CD “Cleanse My Soul.” Since then, she’s been writing new songs and itching to play them live.
She’ll get the chance when she and Karsyn Robb play the Voices of Women concert at Riffs Acoustic Music on Wednesday, Nov. 16.
The show is designed to give female Park City singers and songwriters a chance to showcase their material in front of an attentive audience.
“(Riffs owner) Larry Hart called me and said he had been doing the Full Moon Concert series and decided to bring more women in to perform at the venue,” Rettos Logan said during an interview with The Park Record. “There seems to be more male musicians that perform in this area, so he decided it would be great to have a showcase of female artists.”
Riffs is a small, intimate setting that gives the artist an opportunity to talk about the music, she said.
“I mean, people will actually be listening because I won’t be in a bar or playing background music a restaurant,” Rettos Logan said with a laugh.
Rettos Logan started her music career in Ohio when she began taking classical guitar. As she found her voice singing, she put the guitar aside and performed in theatre, but after relocating to Park City in the early 1990s, she decided to get involved with the live music scene.
“I joined a group called The Hitmen and sang with that group for about 10 years,” she said. “We had a good run and I still work with some of the core members of the band.”
In fact, guitarist Marty Morrison and Rettos Logan still perform acoustic gigs together.
“He will accompany me at the show at Riffs,” she said. “He’s not a female voice, but he’s going to be part of the performance.”
For her set at Riffs, Rettos Logan reached back to some of her early musical influences.
“I got into blues from my mother’s roots in Memphis, Tennessee, and Mississippi,” she said. “I’m actually going to revive an old song called ‘Mississippi’ that was on my first album and strip it down in a different arrangement for the concert.”
Rettos Logan said she doesn’t consider it a challenge being a female in a male-dominated profession such as the music business.
“Maybe when I was younger, it was a different scene, but at this stage of my life it’s a non issue,” she said. “I consider all musicians I work with, male or female, my friends. I’ve learned a lot from them all.”
She did say she is excited to be performing with 17-year-old singer and songwriter Karsyn Robb during the upcoming performance.
“We have done some shows together and I’ve done two concerts with her,” Rettos Logan said about Robb. “I love her energy and think she has great potential and unbelievable insight at her age.
“I’m so excited to work with another female artist, especially one so young with a fresh spirit,” she said.
Robb, who will open the show, shares Rettos Logan’s enthusiasm for the upcoming performance.
“I think it’s a great idea to spotlight women artists and I’m excited to start it off,” she said. “We’re both going to play sets that run about 45 minutes to an hour and then sing a song together at the end.”
Like Rettos Logan, Robb has written some new songs in the past few months.
“I’ve worked on a whole bunch of new songs over the summer and just started to do some acoustic recordings of them,” she said. “I’m looking forward to playing them for people.”
Robb, who just returned from a week-long performance engagement in Nashville, Tenn., said she initially wasn’t all too excited to sing and play the guitar when her grandfather gave her a guitar a few years ago.
“I thought it was a guy thing and I didn’t want to do it,” she said with a smile. “Then in seventh grade, I went through a very hard time and I wrote a song about it. After that I couldn’t stop writing songs.”
Robb discovered she wanted to use her songs to let people know they weren’t alone when life got hard.
“People need to know that others understand what they’re going through,” she said. “That’s what has made me commit to my music career so much. I write about things I go through and what others go through. The main thing to me is connecting with someone who listens and feels the song is about them. I love that.”
Robb wants to be a positive influence on her fans.
“I look at Taylor Swift and see how great an influence she has been on so many people, especially the younger generation, especially when there are big personalities and stars the people look at who don’t have the best reputation,” Robb said. “I look at Taylor and that’s what I aspire to be, a positive impact on whoever is listening.”
Riffs Acoustic Music, 1205 Iron Horse Dr., will host the Voice of Women concert, featuring Park City-based singers and songwriters Karsyn Robb and Jeanne Rettos Logan, on Wednesday, Nov. 16. The music will begin at 7 p.m. Call (435) 647-1940 for reservations. For more information, visit www.riffspc.com.