ONESUMMER OH "Off The Beaten Track"

by jenny heying

I dropped in to Rhythm Park to see OneSummer Oh and although I was there a couple minutes early, she was already on stage performing and complaining that she hasn’t broken any ear drums yet. Ouch, okay I’m curious now.

Opening with “Roadhouse Blues” OneSummer seems a good fit for the blues and rock. Her voice is straining only slightly to give it that Janis feel to it. It blended well with the guitar and backing tracks used. Following with “The Sensitive Kind” was a pleasure to hear. Smooth like Santana with just a touch of raspiness. Although raspiness isn’t a requirement for rock n roll, it does give you that seedy nightclub ambience and suits me just find.

With heavy laden guitar behind her, she jumped into “Whatever You Want” and I feel the small crowd wanted more of the same. As with most rock, it has to be played loud and with my volume way up I was bouncing up and down on my chair.


With an avatar with a slight younger Linda Perry look (okay it was the hat); I can vision OneSummer on stage in a dimly lit club with a huge crowd bopping against the stage. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but not by a whole lot.

Speaking of Janis Joplin, next up was OneSummer’s version of “Summertime”. While she doesn’t try to imitate Janis, she does portray a reasonable facsimile. Her voice suits the song just well and her version is just enough different to make it unique. My only complaint is that with the sheer volume, once in a while the sound became a little distorted. But oh well, that’s rock n roll.

And keeping with the blues/rock theme, she shimmied into “You Shook Me”. Normally, it’s not the Led Zeppelin of choice for female singers, but OneSummer handled it well. Less strained, her voice took us to depths normally reserved for male covers of the song. In fact she took us beyond.

I’m not sure I can put the exact finger on who her voice reminds me of, but it does remind me of someone. If you know, let me know. It was so familiar on “When A Man Loves A Woman” and was on the tip of my tongue but you know, I lost it. With a slight echo, her voice seemed to call out from a distance. It was kinda kewl.

OneSummer loves to chat. She does a lot of it between songs filling us in on her life, loves and just about whatever comes across her mind. It adds the human feel and makes you a feel a little closer to her. “The Thrill Is Gone” continued the blues meets rock show and with severe guitar licks behind her, she made this bluesy enough for the most ardent blues fan.

OneSummer is different and refreshing. Staying away from standard covers and mixing up a lot of blues and rock is a change from the folksy guitar you see a lot of here. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s a nice diversion. All facets of music are represented well in Second Life® and with OneSummer you get something a little off the beaten track.

Rhythm Park is primarily a stage surrounded by a mall. The stage is quite large with enough room for very big pictures of the performers. With a number of performances throughout the day, you should be able to catch a show no matter when you drop by.

Ms. Oh puts the blues to everything she touches no matter where it originally came from. Evident on “Bring It On Home To Me” you can tell she loves the blues and for the most part, it’s what she does best. But rocking is in her too. Back in time with “Light My Fire” she brings rock to the forefront. She puts a lot into her performances and sometimes goes off in tangents about I don’t know what, but it’s fun.

She ended her set with “Bad Moon Rising”, “Purple Haze” and “Going Down” in the same way she started with little fanfare and the stage setup changing around her for the next performer and abrupt end to the stream.

What OneSummer does on stage may not be for everyone. It’s unique and strange sometimes but it’s a whole lot of fun and she certainly seems to be having a whole lot of fun as well. Check her out and see for yourself.