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VAL STARR – KIND OF IMPRESSIVE

By Lawrence Lebo

Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist/Online Radio Entrepreneur Val Starr
kinda does it all! She’s had a lengthy career in the music business
both as a performer and music industry executive. Raised in

Southern California, Val started singing and playing guitar at
age 12. She began performing in cover bands in the 80s and
formed her first blues band in 2010 with her husband and
bassist John Ellis.

Val’s music business career began in the late 70’s working for record labels,
ABC, Chrysalis and Polygram as an executive
assistant. In the early 80’s her focus shifted to
radio promotion and from then on into the late

90’s, Val’s also had a successful career as an
independent radio promoter. She would work in
the music industry by day and play in clubs at
night! And if that isn’t enough, Ms. Starr started
one of the first streaming audio networks,
Allradio.com, went on to launch Choiceradio.com,
followed by Gotradio.com, all while promoting her

own blues summer concert series called Blues On
The Patio. She is one productive lady!

Val’s 6th release, ‘Val Starr and the Blues Rocket:
Healing Kind of Blues’ reflects on her state of mind
during the global pandemic. Val wrote most of the
album’s 12 tracks which run the gambit of styles
under the blues umbrella including blues rock,
swing, and shuffle. The lyrics are centred around

the themes of getting older and carrying on, and
as the album title infers, healing through music.
On title track 4 Ms. Starr asks, “What kind of
blues will comfort you?”. And on track 6 titled Age
Is Just A Number Val writes “Age is just a number that gets stuck inside your head”. Notables are
guest female blues artists Debra Powers on piano and Ilana Katz Katz on fiddle.

I asked Val Starr to tell us about herself and her diverse music career. This is what she told me…

LL: I always like to start at the beginning! Would you tells us a bit about where you grew up and your
family please?

VS: I grew up in southern California in the San Fernando Valley. I was the second eldest of four
children. My Dad was a Jewish attorney with a Russian background and my mother was born in
Sussex, England. Unfortunately, my parents split when I was 13 years old. I really had to grow up

fast and found solace in music.