LaRhonda Steele Family Band
Tue, Feb 11
|Ripon High School Multi-use Building
Time & Location
Feb 11, 2025, 7:30 PM
Ripon High School Multi-use Building, 301 N Acacia Ave, Ripon, CA 95366, USA
About The Event
LaRhonda Steele, the “First Lady of Portland Blues” and the Steele family band rock the Portland Waterfront every year. Annual favorites at Portland’s premier Blues Festival, the Steele Family members, together and individually, infuse Northwest festival and stage performances with passion, energy, and power. On their first tour to California, the Band joins forces with Bay Area musicians to bring Ripon Arts League an exhilarating evening of Blues, Gospel, Soul, and Jazz, the musical heritage of America’s Black community.
Music is everywhere in the lives of the Steele family. For LaRhonda, Mark, and daughters Lauren “Lo” and now East-Coast based Sarah, working through music phrasing as they go about their day, writing songs, harmonizing at home, and performing for the public has always been their way of life.
As Oregon Music Hall of Fame’s Norman “The Boogie Cat” Sylvester says of the Steeles, ”They are just phenomenal. The expression of the music, the tonalities, the perfect harmonies, the pitches, it’s all there.”
About the Artists
LaRhonda Steele
For Singer, LaRhonda Steele, music is not what she does, it is who she is.
She sings the songs that carry forth directly from her soul and spiritual life-force.
Beginning her musical journey in Jones, Oklahoma, singing her first solo in church at age 13, LaRhonda has since lived her life writing music, and singing, singing, singing.
An Oregon Music Hall of Fame inductee – and Cascade Blues Association award winner - LaRhonda is the music director for the Portland Interfaith Gospel Choir, one of only a few such choirs that include the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. She has served as the music director for the Portland Center for Spiritual Living for years, and has recorded with numerous artists. Fans consider LaRhonda to be a musical force of nature.
Lo Steele
Lauren “Lo” Steele is a rising star, an award-winning singer, actor, songwriter, poet, and recording artist. Creating a musical direction of her own, Lo blends Soul, Gospel and Blues traditions with modern R&B influence. In addition to making the rounds of the NW music festivals, Lo has toured Brazil with the Igor Prado Band. She has a unique voice and message, as heard in her album release Happy Girl, reviewed as a “cure-all for listeners aching to feel seen” (Portland Mercury). From singing and songwriting to her recent forays into the theater as both actor and playright, Lo Steele continues to expand her artistic presence in the Portland area and beyond.
Mark Steele
Mark Steele is the jazz and R&B man in the family, whose musical sensibilities have come to embrace the gospel sound as well. His professional piano and keyboard skills brought him to perform with jazz greats such as Lionel Hampton, jazz guitarist, Joe Pass, and pop composer/singer Michael Sembello. A prolific creative, he has composed and arranged hundreds of pieces for solo piano, electronic orchestras, and worship choruses. Among his many recordings is Artistic Differences, a collection of musical works composed, arranged, and performed with his wife, LaRhonda Steele.
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Photo credit: Norman Eder