Reno finds its ‘Voice’ – Whitney Myer – onstage at Grand Sierra
Whitney Myer’s solo career begins in grand fashion on Friday, April 26.
Whitney Myer has been onstage in front of 6 million television viewers but she’s never performed in a venue as large as where she will be Friday, April 26.
Myer makes her solo debut in grand fashion when the hometown girl celebrates a CD release in the Grand Sierra Resort Grand Theatre.
“It’s the biggest room I’ve ever tried to play in,” she said. “It’s one of those legendary venues everybody talks about.”
Everybody was talking about Myer in 2012 when she advanced on NBC’s vocal competition, “The Voice.” Weekly viewing parties for the local hero were held at Myer’s former place of employment, the Great Basin Brewing Company in Sparks. Myer concluded her high-profile year with an October show in the Crystal Bay Crown Room. The Whitney Myer band – Myer, her father, Scott, uncle, Fred (the twin brothers played in the Mudsharks), and bass player Gia Torcaso – disbanded after the show.
“I immediately started recording (‘Articles of a Luminous Nature’)”, she said. “I worked on it day and night. Every sound that you hear is hand chosen by myself and the producer that I chose to work with.”
The pop and soul record has plenty of studio effects and it features a voice that has grown to achieve its lofty expectations. She was named after Whitney Houston.
Myer captured attention with her national television appearances. She also learned the business isn’t always glamorous.
“The experience that I gained from being on the show and the repercussions afterwards are something that I would not change,” she said. “It was a really trying experience. People think that it was all roses and all fun and awesome when you are there, but it’s not really like that. It’s more like really stressful and a ton of work, which is great.”
Myer’s show Saturday is a celebration of herself and her hometown, which has publicized the concert with billboards downtown and on Highway 395. Her band for the evening features some of the city’s best: drummer-singer Cliff Porter of Jelly Bread, singer-songwriter Tim Snider and Torcaso who remains the bassist. Three of Myers fellow University of Nevada, Reno graduate students with degrees in fine arts will have work displayed during the show.
“I want Reno to see all the amazingly talented people who are here,” Myer said. “I think Reno sometimes doesn’t think that we have as much culture and art as a big city and my purpose of this show is to say, ‘Yeah, we do.’ We can put on as big of a show as Sacramento or San Francisco or even LA. We just have to be aware of it, and that’s what I’m hoping people will see.”
Whitney Myer’s CD’ release party: ‘Articles of a Luminous Nature’
Two billboards in Reno publicize Whitney Myer’s Grand Sierra Resort concert.
ABOUT Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.
