Printer Friendly Version (PDF)
Bio
The Houston native has performed all genres of music in her career, singing everything from folk and country to R&B and rock to heavy metal. At age 9, she picked up her first guitar – left to her by her mother, who died when Sanders was barely a year old – and began learning songs from records and the radio by ear.
Sanders got her start playing in Houston metal and hard-rock bands after
learning to play bass by default. At age 18, Sanders formed a band with an
ex-boyfriend, but the group was missing a bass player at the first rehearsal.
During a break, a rock radio station was playing “Smoke on the Water” and she
mimicked the lick on her guitar. “They said, ‘That’s it – you’re our bass
player’.”
Though Sanders stumbled onto the bass guitar by accident, her natural
talent and dedication is certainly no fluke. She studied the styles of her
bass-playing idols, Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones and Geddy Lee. When she
played bass with Houston metal band Bad Heaven, Sanders would rock the house and
drew lots of accolades from touring musicians when her group got to open for the
likes of metal shredders Megadeth and Metal Church.
As a vocalist, she loved to perform tender ballads and balls-to-the-wall
rockers, citing influences from Linda Ronstadt to Janis Joplin and Robert Plant.
She put all her vocal and bass-playing talents together in rock band Rare Seed,
voted best rock band in Houston in 1996-97 by the Houston Music Council.
But along the way, Sanders wrote other songs of a more personal nature
that did not seem to fit with her other bands. So in recent years, she began
playing solo acoustic gigs to give those songs an audience. Some of the songs
she wrote, such as the poignant “Slight of Hand” or the hard rocker “No Love
Lost” were based on traumatic experiences. “With ‘Slight of Hand’ I had just
come out of two years of pure hell. A divorce, my father and grandmother died, I
lost my job, you name it,” says Sanders. “Everything poured out into those
songs, the misery and depression, but I think that's how I was able to move on.”
All of those songs can be found on her debut solo CD, Riches to Rags,
which also includes other tunes with very optimistic undertones, such as the
funky roadhouse rocker “Good Thang” the poignant, sweeping ballad “Everything”
and the rootsy, Allman Brothers-inspired riffs in “Nice Girl."
Sanders, whose vocal style has been compared in reviews to Sheryl Crow,
Melissa Etheridge and Michelle Branch, was able to work with some of Houston’s
best musicians during the recording of Riches to Rags, which includes sweeping
orchestrations and arrangements that she created, especially lush vocal
harmonies on both the ballads and the rockers.
Still, the creative process of making the CD became a continuous project,
she discovered, while honing the sound and arrangements when putting a new band
together for live shows.
“I thought it would be cool to take the orchestrated sound on the CD and
give it an edge for the gigs so I put together the new group with players who
all have a background in heavy metal bands,” said Sanders, who has switched back
from bass to rhythm guitar. The Myrna Sanders Band includes Michael Simon (lead
guitar), Frank Fernandez (drums) and Greg Barr (bass). “Having this contrast of
the sweet harmonies with the ballsy bass, drums and guitar creates the kind of
compelling sound that I like to hear when I go out to see a band live.”
Sanders was nominated for Best Female Vocalist in the 2003 Houston Press
Music Awards and the 2004 MyTexasMusic.com Awards. Myrna and her band have
performed at and hosted several the GoGirlsRock showcases in Houston. Her music
is also being included in various compilation CD's being distributed nationally,
such as the GoGirlsRock MusicFest Compilation for 2004 benefiting Rock and Roll
Camp for Girls.
You can hear Myrna's music on KPFT, 90.1 FM in Houston, and on the world wide
web at Subterra Radio on Nightmoves.us, OutboundMusic.com and Chicks Rock Radio
on Live 365.com. Riches to Rags can be purchased at Cactus Music & Video,
Soundwaves #3 on Montrose and AllRecords retail outlets in Houston; Waterloo
Records and Video in Austin; Hogwild Records in San Antonio and on the web at
MyTexasMusic.com, Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, OutboundMusic.com, and CDStreet.com.
For general information visit www.myrnasanders.com and for booking send email to
divamsm@ev1.net.