Another impressive gal geetarist

[Melisan]

I caught the footage of MJ's rehearsals and was curious about his guitarist. What's MJ doing with a young blond girl on guitar? A quick Google search turned up something interesting. Her name is Orianthi Panagaris (she's Australian but that's an odd name), and at age 23, has worked for Taylor Swift, Steve Vai and Carlos Santana. Now she was going to gig for MJ. Carlos, Steve and MJ? That is 3 huge votes of confidence.

This girl has had bigger gigs in early 20s than many musicians get in a lifetime. Could it be the guitar magazines will finally have to stop putting dead guys on their covers and finally profile a female guitarist for the first time in, well, ever? She's cover girl material, that's for sure.

 

[Doodoobubbachuck]

I think this is the same girl we saw at the PRS party a couple years ago. I wonder what her next gig will be.

 

[NeonAngel]

Wow. There IS a Taylor Swift-ness to her, isn't there?

 

[A7]

Apparently, MJ had this thing for blonde girl guitarists for a long time. A friend of mine told me that over 20 years ago, this other blonde girl was offered to tour with MJ as his guitarist. She passed the offer, though.

We now know her as Nicole Couch, co-founder of Phantom Blue.

 

[Melisan]

He must have had a thing for blondes in general. Ever see those old pics of Sheryl Crow as his backup singer in the late 80s? Long blonde poofy poodle hair. She was pretty much unrecognizable compared to now with the straight reddish-brown hair.

 

[Courtsmom]

I'm glad he never got wind of Courtney then (Young and blonde), I was worried enough when she toured with Jon Anderson from YES, and Adrian Belew from King Crimson back when she was in her teens.

 

[Doodoobubbachuck]

Apparently, MJ had this thing for blonde girl guitarists for a long time. A friend of mine told me that over 20 years ago, this other blonde girl was offered to tour with MJ as his guitarist. She passed the offer, though.

We now know her as Nicole Couch, co-founder of Phantom Blue.

Wow, never heard that one before.

Let's not forget about Jennifer Batten too. Man, what they did with HER hair!!

 

[NeonAngel]

I forgot about Sheryl Crow until ya mentioned it. But I do remember seeing the photos. Big hair indeed!

 

[G.L.M.F.]

Orianthi toured with Steve Vai, recorded for Carrie Underwood, was in the studio with Jacko (an album will be released, beleive me) produced by Will I Am just weeks before he died.

Orianthi has solo work, toured Japan... see [ame]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=23510290[/ame]

 

[A7]

This song is borderline tween pop, but damn, she definitely can shred. Perhaps she should duel it out with Courtney one of these days.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK14Bu3ET-s]"According to You"[/ame]

(Video won't play here. Click on the link to go directly to YouTube.)

 

[Big Momma Nav]

She's backed by Geffen records and managed by 19 Entertainment out of UK, which is Simon Fuller's management company who handle VERY big artists. This is almost unheard of for a solo guitarist, so she definately impressed some very big people to get this far!

Funny, I heard she got her invite to join MJ from her myspace page

n

 

[Melisan]

Damn that last song sounded like something from Avril or the no-talent Disney brats. Except for all the shredding on guitar.