Nobody's Girl

Jan Luby is known for her engaging, often riveting stage-presence as well as her voice full of passion, range and power. The readers of Rhode Island's Motif Magazine agreed. They chose Jan as Female Vocalist of 2011. Jan's songs are evocative, lyrical and infectious personal stories. Her approach to songwriting ranges from socially relevant to irreverent, heartbreaking to humorous. Jan and her two siblings were born on the road to Vaudeville parents (a comedy juggler and an acrobat/dancer). Growing up back stage, living in a trailer, and traveling through 47 states before the age of seven primed her for her later entrance into the West Coast New Vaudeville scene. But first her family landed in Coney Island, New York, where as a teenager she acted and danced in the Everyman Company and Chalk Circle Players. At the age of 20 Jan Luby escaped New York to head west, eventually making a name for herself in Santa Cruz, California as a solo singer/songwriter. She was one of the founders of the Santa Cruz Street Performers Guild and it's open mic. It was in Santa Cruz that she hooked up with the likes of the Flying Karamazov Brothers, Tom Noddy (quot;The Bubble Guyquot;) and many other New Vaudeville performers and formed the comedy-musical duo Girls Who Wear Glasses with her partner, Rebo Flordigan. As part of the New Vaudeville circuit, Jan played clubs, fairs and festivals including The Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Edmonton Folk Festivals, the Milwaukee Harvest Festival, Oregon Country Fair, The Bear Mountain Festival of Music and Dance, Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival and The San Francisco Vaudeville Festival. As a solo performer Jan Luby is equally at home on a festival-stage in front of thousands as she is in more intimate settings, and has played coffeehouses, clubs, festivals and street-corners from Sweden to Greece and from New York and Boston to the Pacific Northwest. Upon moving to Boston in 1987, Jan helped to establish the open mic at the Nameless Coffeehouse. She has played all over New England, sharing stages with Louden Wainwright III, Cheryl Wheeler, Bob Franke, Townes Van Sandt, Garnet Rogers, Lucie Blue Tremblay, Ani DiFranco, Dar Williams and many other noteworthy performers. 'Jan Luby is one of the cutting edge, shining lights...A completely natural performer with a voice of anger, humor, warmth and beauty.' - Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary) '...gut simple, killer songs and a very strong stage presence.' - Geoff Bartley 'Vibrant, conversational and fun...Her voice is explosive!' - Steve Ide, The Patriot Ledger What they said about her Tough Like a Weed album: 'Jan spins her tales of life and growing up using contrete images while slipping with ease from genre to genre. She has a remarkable ability to make you believe and remember.' - Songwriter's Monthly 'Luby's voice is engaging, emotive and candid...as close to perfection as can be. If the listener doesn't get goosebumps...they might want to double check themselves for a pulse.' - Michael Khouri, Northeast Performer.