Rockin divas Smith s early interest in jazz and blues was influenced by singers such as Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. I was the kind of teenager who was always looking for the most alternative thing to do, she said. I ve also always loved things from the past old music, old clothes. Her musical style also grew out of her youth, living in the Philippines, where Smith performed with Filipino rock bands when she was 14 years old.

We performed for sailors on the military base there, the California-born singer said. It was a great start. These days, Smith s back-up band is made up of four horns, a piano, bass and drums. The band s musical director and piano player, Chris Siebert, is also excited about coming to Wisconsin because his father is from Kenosha, Smith said.

The singer also said she is thrilled to work with these musicians who have played with artists such as Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton and Wynton Marsalis, just to name a few. They are fantastic, Smith said of the Skillet Lickers. These are some of the best musicians around, said Dwight Vaught, special events coordinator at UW-Parkside. And Lavay Smith is an incredible vocalist whose persona just commands the stage.

She and the Skillet Lickers are a great beginning to what is a collection of 10 great shows, Vaught said. Other highlights include guitarist and musical icon Stanley Jordan; classical pianist Leon Bates, who Vaught describes as one of the most phenomenal pianists working today ; the Johnny Cash tribute, Ring of Fire ; and mezzo soprano Ruby Hinds, telling the story of Marian Anderson, the first black woman to break the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera.