Eve Selis

Born in California, Selis spent her childhood in the San Diego area, where she first took the stage as a young performer in a neighborhood church ensemble while harboring ambitions of rock stardom. A brief, unsuccessful stint at university, where she pursued studies in musical theatre and English, preceded her entry into the regional bar-band scene, during which she juggled various daytime employment to sustain her musical aspirations. Early in the 1990s she joined forces with guitarist and songwriter Marc ‘Twang’ Intravaia as lead singer of King’s Road, a unit that earned considerable local acclaim; although the pair toured and recorded extensively, the group achieved only modest regional traction without broader national recognition.

Selis maintained her partnership with Intravaia upon launching a solo career in the late 1990s, issuing her first album, Out On A Wire, in 1998. The energetic fusion of pop, rock, and country elements gave partial substance to her self-description as ‘the Queen of Roadhouse Rock’, yet the record fell short of capturing the full force of her concert performances. Vigorous online promotion, particularly through the MP3.com download platform, helped elevate sales of the subsequent release, Long Road Home, which drew widespread critical approval, as did the 2002 successor Do You Know Me; even so, her internet visibility did little to expand her reputation beyond the San Diego vicinity. Her fourth album, Nothing But The Truth, included strong interpretations of Kim Richey’s ‘Those Words We Said’ and Tom Petty’s ‘Room At The Top’, complemented by several bold originals co-written with Intravaia.