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Guitar goddess and soulful singer/songwriter Carolyn Wonderland says her stage surname was "laid on her" in high school. "It was about the time of much experimentation with LSD, and a friend of mine decided to drop the name on me," Wonderland says. "We had a gig — but we didn't have a band name so I didn't know what we were gonna do — and they were like, 'Call it Carolyn Wonderland,' and I was like, 'All right, I think I'll keep that one.'"
Nearly 20 years later the name has become a familiar entry on the Rochester International Jazz Festival's lineup, and this year the blues musician shares the Eastman Theatre stage with ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro.
Although Wonderland played last year's festival, this year's performance on Tuesday, June 16, holds some extra excitement. "The Eastman Theatre, dude — that's gonna be cool. Sorry, I don't mean to gush, but I think that's gonna be pretty fine," she says.
Wonderland will certainly bring her guitar prowess and poetic lyrics, but don't be surprised if she shows off a few more talents. She also plays the trumpet, accordion, piano and mandolin.
In the past she's brought her varied talents to collaborations with many popular artists. She's been featured on 14 albums by her contemporaries, released six of her own, toured with Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter, and jammed with Los Lobos and Bob Dylan — a huge fan of hers.
"I just always like to play, and if you just do your own thing, well, you can refine that to a certain degree but it's a lot more fun to go out, play with other folks, get ideas and bring them back," Wonderland says.
The musician has plenty of life experience to draw ideas from as well, having lived in her van for nearly two years. After her landlord fell ill and her landlord's niece cashed several of the musician's rent checks at once, Wonderland lost her lease.
"Sometimes when you're doing what you love, you're not making the money," she explains. "We were touring so much it would've been silly to pay rent anyway. I just couldn't have swung both at the same time ... But it's funny to think that everything I owned at that point could fit in the van and a 5-by-5 storage space."
