Delivering dynamic, high energy performances for over 15 years, Andrea Dodge has earned an outstanding reputation in the Southern Tier of NY for her gifted vocals, raw, unbridled emotional intensity, aggressive no-pick guitar strumming style and a powerful connectivity with her audiences. With vocal persuasions that have been compared to female rockers like Ani Difranco and Blues icons like Janis Joplin and Susan Tedeshi, Andrea Dodge is a powerhouse performer.
Allan Nobles of Canaseraga Hardware & Coffee Company says, "Andrea delivers the most enigmatic and captivating performances I have ever witnessed - bar none. Her songs are powerful and honest works of art. Prepare to be blown away."
Andrea is well loved by her fans for being the genuine article who delivers that dose of real energy capturing people’s attention quickly when she performs. With song selections that are widely varied, she has been known to really mix things up inside one performance, skillfully strumming away at her favorite rendition of a rock cover one minute to wailing out her soulful original, Bless My Soul the next. She sings ballads. She sings gospels. She sings the blues. She sings it all. And in a world that so often demands genre boundaries, Dodge considers herself a rule breaker.
"My music is like multiple personality disorder,” Dodge says. ”I just can't decide on a sound. I have written music that literally takes my fans from one side of the galaxy of my mind to another. My songwriting expresses my inner journey and my observations of it...which aren't exactly sane."
Dodge has considerable experience in group performances but her greatest gift seems to be in her intimate performances with audiences as a solo singer/songwriter, many of which have brought her standing ovations. Tammy Brackett of Swindle Sisters praises Dodge when she says, "Andrea rips the traditional notion of singer/songwriter from its mooring with her explosive performances and intricate writing. So perceptive, vocal, and captivating, she provokes expletives from her audience."
In 2005, Andrea released her maiden debut, Today, a simple 4 song demo CD of original material. In a short time, many copies were being sold at the cost of 5 dollars each as reports came in from as far as Nova Scotia, Canada that it was well loved. Soon after, she began writing prolifically, experimenting with new musical styles and subjects. In her song, “The Girl,” she wails out a prophetic ballad of vulnerability that opens with a direct, You’re gonna hurt me. Dodge continually stuns audiences with an honesty and intensity that has people dancing in celebration one minute and drying their eyes the next.
Throughout her career, Dodge has developed a unique strumming style that baffles many as she rarely uses a pick for strumming. Her guitar playing is primitive, evincing an intimate connection between her and her guitar, her fingers always strumming in this lighting across the frets kind of way. Dodge explains, “Everything I have done in the last seven years or so has been fairly aggressive and up close to the strings. I like to feel everything I'm doing and I like the volume control I have for dimension within my performance."
For two years, Dodge has been plugging away at a CD concept called, Mirror Mirror.
"After a traumatic set of events, I began cranking out songs, most circling around an epiphany which was the root of their development. The lyrics painted a picture for me of a ONE mind kind of collective thing. It was intense. Much of this was mirrored in a subsequent sabbatical I spent in Arizona wilderness where unity was manifested tangibly for me in images like a lone rattle snake on an old kitchen chair sitting in the middle of a desert. As both an artist and simply a human, this was perhaps some of the most productive time I’ve ever spent."
Andrea is excited to record and release a large collection of new work and looks forward to performing live as much as possible in the future.
"Music transcends all boundaries and communication barriers. It gets to the heart of things and I believe this is why we all love it so much."
