Contact: Jacqui Corsi, Director of Marketing, jacqui@thelmaarts.org
Fond du Lac natives Stephen Cooper (The HUZz) and Kurt Shipe return home with a mix of retro, old-soul and Motown-influenced WiFee and the HUZzband Friday at THELMA.
Cooper is a 1994 graduate of Goodrich High School and Shipe, who plays trumpet in the band, is the son of longtime Fond du Lac High School band director, Dale Shipe. Cooper formed the band along with his fiancé, Ruby James (WiFee). She is a Los Angeles native and former resident of Austin, where she performed regularly. They met at music festival in Sturgeon Bay. The band name was a product of creative thinking the night they got engaged.
They quickly learned together, they could create music despite their differences – he plays the saxophone and she is a rocker. Both of them sing. They wrote their first song together in 30 minutes, “Forever My Dear.”
Together the couple put the 10-piece band together two years ago, which includes longtime friend, Shipe.
“It’s been really fun to do this band, not only writing songs that we both love and are from our hearts, but also seeing how much people are really taken in by it,” Cooper said. “It’s all new songs, but it’s got that familiar sound that everybody’s comfortable with and everybody loves.”
James agrees.
“There’s nothing subtle about us, from the way we look to the cars (Cooper) drives to the hairdos,” James said. “We put this band together from both of our worlds. I came from this Holiday Music Motel world of songwriters. Most of our rhythm section is pulled from that. Then he came from a big band and a jazz world, so he played with those before. What he’s told me – and now I feel it – is once you do that, I don’t know how you go back.”
The concert begins at 8 pm, Friday, January 16. Doors and the bar open at 7 pm. Tickets are $12 for members and $20 for nonmembers. Visit thelmaarts.org and click tickets.
To learn more about the band, visit thelmaarts.org or wifeeandthehuzzband.com . THELMA is located at 51 Sheboygan St., in the heart of Downtown Fond du Lac’s Arts and Entertainment District.
Learn more about THELMA at thelmaarts.org, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
