The Prince George Citizen

Pop-rock performer brings something extra Speziale

- Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

An adopted daughter of P.G. is coming “home” for a concert experience.

Toronto pop-rock powerhouse Jessica Speziale has a family connection to this city and uses her visits to unleash small, intimate concert experience­s where her big vocals can soar in local intimate settings.

It has been a couple of years since she was last here, but a return engagement has been booked. March 30 is the mark to make on your music calendar. The location is still to be an- nounced.

It will be the end of a very busy month for the chanteuse. Her new single The Feels will be released in early spring. That will be the ignition point for a concert at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on March 1 sharing the stage with indie rock and roll bands Goodnight Sunrise, The Honeyrunne­rs and The Dead Projection­ists.

Then Speziale gets on a train and lets it rock and roll her all the way to B.C. She will be doing concerts aboard the Vial Rail passenger route, performing a number of on-board acoustic shows during the trip’s five days past the Great Lakes, through the Canadian Shield, across the prairies, in and out of the Rockies, and finally arriving at the west coast.

After that, she trades steel wheels for rubber tires and embarks on a B.C. jaunt with Prince George glowing on her radar.

Speziale is considered one of Canada’s fast-rising talents, with comparison­s to Amanda Marshall, Melissa Etheridge and Alanis Morissette.

She first came to public light in 2011 with the release of her EP Dear Reverie. That was followed in 2014 with the fulllength album Shine.

Between the two, she scored airtime on CBC Radio and OMNI Television, plus appearance­s at some of the top festivals in the country like NxNE, Canadian Music Week and Indie Week Canada.

YouTube and Facebook have been particular­ly fertile ground for Speziale, with almost 100 videos raking in thousands of total views.

She does a popular weekly segment called Sunday Chunes where she does stripped-down vocal covers and often has special guests join her.

Speziale is also part of the choral ensemble Arcady, a group specializi­ng in new Canadian compositio­ns and showcasing emerging Canadian vocal talent.

She is also part of the One Fire Movement, which she described as “an arts-based organizati­on that works with local and internatio­nal artists to help promote positivity and awareness in support of charity organizati­ons. One Fire Movement donates to Nellie’s Shelter and Amnesty Internatio­nal – two charities that remain close to my heart.”

She is featured on One Fire Movement’s charity compilatio­n album series, Songs From The Heart and has also performed at Amnesty Internatio­nal Toronto’s Annual Conference­s.

 ?? HANDOUT PHOTO ?? Jessica Speziale, pop-rock entertaine­r, will be performing in Prince George March 30.
HANDOUT PHOTO Jessica Speziale, pop-rock entertaine­r, will be performing in Prince George March 30.

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