About Calamity Jane

There are at least four bands named Calamity Jane. 1. Calamity Jane formed around 1988 in Olympia, WA. The band originally consisted of Lisa Koenig on drums, Ronna Era on bass and Gilly Ann Hanner doing vocals and guitar. The band played under different monikers, such as 'Catbox' and 'Sometimes Why'. Era left the band to form Treehouse and was replaced with Hanner's sister Megan. The band stuck with Calamity Jane for unknown reasons. Successful shows in Portland, OR led the band to move there in 1989. Soon afterwards the band recorded their first album (singles had been released earlier on cassette with Pat Maley) and Koenig moved back to Olympia. Megan moved to New Mexico and Hanner began to reconstitute the band. She recruited Joanne Bolme to play bass and Marci Martinez to replace Koenig. Megan later moved bank to Portland (reportedly when she heard someone else playing her bass lines) to take back up the bass and Bolme stayed as second guitar. This is still the current line-up. Calamity Jane disbanded in 1992 directly after opening for Nirvana in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dispite the band's great reception in other countries, the band was booed and spat upon before ditching the stage. [from previous bio, needs source]: Nirvana paid Calamity Jane five-thousand dollars to be heckled by twenty thousand macho boys in Argentina on 10/30/92. Interestingly, Hanner was friends with Elliot Smith and Kurt Cobain. Nirvana even played at her birthday party. In 2003 Hanner had a daughter and in 2005 she opened a hair salon. She lives in Portland with her daughter, step-son and boyfriend. As of 2010 Bolme was playing in Quasi and Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks. Martinez was playing with the Forsorcerors and doing social work. Megan was living outside of Portland with her children. Hanner cites some of her influences as the U-Men, Sonic Youth, X, Blonde Redhead, PJ Harvey, Bonny Prince Billy, Police, Rush, Devo, Naked Raygun, B-52s, Let's Active, Scratch Acid, Pixies, Slits, Bad Brainds, Lunachicks, Scrawl, Babes in Toyland, Breeders, Explode into Colors, Spoon, Quasi, Snakepit, Dirtybird, Hellcows, Hungry Ghost, Gorillaz, Blur, Good the Bad & the Queen, Submarines, Radiohead, Joan Jett, and others. As of June 2010 Calamity Jane was playing together and planning summer shows. 2. Calamity Jane was an American, all-female country music band composed of Mary Fielder (guitar), Mary Ann Kennedy (drums), Linda Moore (bass guitar) and Pam Rose (lead vocals). The band recorded for Columbia Records between 1981 and 1982, charting four times on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts, including the No. 44 "I've Just Seen a Face" (by Lennon- McCartney from The Beatles) from 1982. Prior to the quartet's foundation, Rose had been a solo recording artist on Capitol and Epic Records. After 1982, Kennedy and Rose split from the band and formed a singing-songwriting duo called Kennedy Rose, writing hits for Restless Heart, Lee Greenwood and Martina McBride in addition to recording two albums for IRS Records. 3. Calamity Jane is a Rock / Alternative Rock / Indie Rock band from Giessen, Germany composed of 3 rebel rock'n'roll girls and an energetic drummer. Band Members are: Oana - Vocals, Nadja - Guitar, Kyra - Bass, Dirk - Drums Nadja and Kyra have met in 2005 and started making music together. Later, Dirk and Oana joined the band which was baptized after the well-known western heroine. The girls from Calamity Jane want to succeed in the rock music business, in which the women are still eclipsed by men, similarly as their american heroine succeeded during the western times in the gunslingers'world. Since 2009, the band has played many live shows on local festivals and in numerous pubs. Their EP, "Burn the City", was released in February 2011 and contains 5 tracks. In the moment, the band is planning new recordings and a professional video. Their music is characterized by catchy riffs and solos created by Nadja, played on Kyra's solid bass-line and perfectly completed by Dirk's drums. On top of that, comes Oana's intense and unique voice which is accompanied by the backing vocals of Nadja and Kyra. Calamity Jane is also sending, using their creative lyrics, a powerful critical social message inspired by everyday experiences of the band members. When on the stage, the three girls with their drummer are literally on fire, offering an explosive show. This makes Calamity Jane a live band which no one wants to miss. 4. Calamity Jane is Philly band that formed in the fall of 2013. calamityjanephilly.bandcamp.com