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like a dream come true because I’ve enjoyed their music since early childhood. My older siblings

had their albums, and it was really exciting.

BiTS: The first gig in Indianapolis must have been terrifying if you had never done the songs
before?

HD: Yeah, I was a little nervous, but I carried it off and they were very pleased. My voice is very
much like hers with the phrasing and everything – it’s less growley, but it was something that I was
born to do, I guess.

BiTS: Did you have a favourite song
from the set that you did that Janis
Janis Joplin
used to do?

HD: I loved doing ‘Ball and Chain’
because it’s a very emotional song
and you really have to sing your
guts out with it and that was my
favourite one. It was a real
showstopper. Always brought down
the house.

BiTS: How long were you working
with this band?

HD: We did the East Coast tour for
a few months and then I came back
and did another tour with them out
in Western New York. It was just a
couple of tours, but it was very

exciting.

BiTS: I know that there is a Janis
Joplin stage show. That’s nothing to
do with what you were doing, though?

HD: No, that was a separate thing.

BiTS: Let’s move on to what you’re doing now, The Halley DeVestern Band, which I happen to
think is absolutely terrific. Tell me how you got together and how you formed the band in the first
place.

HD: I met my husband when we were doing a benefit together and he became my bass player as

well as my husband, and we got together with our drummer Rich Kulsar and our guitarist David
Patterson and our newer guitarist Steve Jarvis by word of mouth. Who would be a good person for
this band and through recommendation we got together, and we’ve been together since 2006?
That’s basically how it happened, just word of mouth, who’s available, who’s good?

BiTS: This new album that you’ve got out under the band’s name is not the first. How many have
you done with the band so far?

HD: This will be our fourth album together. I’ve done other albums with a different band. Maybe

three albums with other bands.